Second-half goals from Josh Cullen and Jaidon Anthony saw Burnley claim all three points in their first home game of the 2025/26 Premier League season.

The skipper put in a superb performance, after curling home the opener in the 47th minute, Cullen then teed up Anthony with an excellent ball, as the winger latched on and rounded Robin Roefs to fire home the second of the afternoon two minutes from time.

Head Coach Scott Parker made two changes from the side that played at Spurs last weekend, with Lesley Ugochukwu handed his first start coming in for Josh Laurent and Jacob Bruun Larsen replacing Oliver Sonne.

The first chance of the game fell Sunderland’s way and it was with only a few minutes on the clock, as Dan Ballard met a free-kick into the area and guided it towards the back-post for Eliezer Mayenda, but the forward’s close-range effort was denied well by Martin Dúbravka.

With both sides looking to get a foot into the game, Sunderland then came a whisker away from taking the lead with 14 minutes played, when Chemsdine Talbi latched onto a through ball and dinked it past Dúbravka, but it fizzed just wide of the post and out.

The game began to open up and the Clarets looked to have taken the lead in the 18th minute, but Lyle Foster’s well-taken finish was ruled out by VAR for a foul in the build-up.

As half-time approached, with a quieter end to the first-half than the opening 25 minutes, Granit Xhaka set his sights on goal, but the Swiss international’s strike sailed well wide of target.

The final opportunity of the first 45 minutes fell to Burnley and Anthony, but the forward could only steer the ball just wide of target from Hannibal’s pin-point cross to the back-post.

The Clarets came out on the front foot in the second-half and it didn’t take them long to clinch the opener, after some well-worked play saw Anthony back-heel the ball into the path of Cullen, who took a touch and curled it home from the edge of the area perfectly into the bottom corner.

Burnley were certainly looking the stronger side in the opening 10 minutes of the second-half and came close to a second shortly after, but Bruun Larsen’s effort drifted over the crossbar.

Parker turned to his bench for the first time in the game with just over 20 minutes left, as Bruun Larsen and Ugochukwu made way for Sonne and Laurent.

Further changes were made with only seven minutes left to play, as Loum Tchaouna, Joe Worrall and Zian Flemming all came on for the final few moments, as the Clarets looked to see out the victory.

However, they managed to do more than see out the win, as Cullen whipped in a fine through ball for Anthony, with the forward latching onto it and racing into the area to round Roefs and slot home to seal all three points in the 88th minute.

Burnley:  Dúbravka, Walker, Hartman, Estève (Worrall 83), Foster (Flemming 86), Ekdal, Bruun Larsen (Sonne 68), Cullen, Hannibal (Tchaouna 83), Ugochukwu (Laurent 68), Anthony

Unused substitutes: Weiss, Edwards, Ramsey, Pires

Sunderland: Roefs, Ballard (Seelt 9), Hume, Sadiki, Xhaka, Talbi (Roberts 63), Mandava, Mayenda (Isidor 62), Alderete, Adingra (Le Fee 62), Diarra

Unused substitutes: Patterson, Neil, Guiu, Rigg, Masuaku

Goals: Cullen 47’, Anthony 88’

Attendance: 21,285 (2,262)