Sunderland host Newcastle in Wear-Tyne derby
The rivals face each other at the Stadium of Light
Last updated 14th Dec 2025
The first Wear-Tyne derby in the Premier League in years is taking place today.
Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris heads into the showdown with neighbours Newcastle having learned painful lessons from derby football.
The 50-year-old Frenchman's last season at Lorient saw his team lose 4-0 at Breton rivals Brest and then go down 1-0 in the return as they slipped to relegation from Ligue 1 at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
After the first game in December 2023, Le Bris and his players arrived at the training ground to find 400kg of rotting fish had been dumped outside by a fans' group protesting over their form.
Le Bris said: "I wouldn't say that was a great experience. Just like players, as a coach you can have ups and downs, but you are still growing from those experiences.
"It was a different story, but it was really important in my pathway, not just to experience, but to learn from different events.
"Anything can happen in football, but I can say that the energy here is totally different. The squad here is well connected with the project and with the fans and the dynamic of the club.
"Yes, we could lose, but we will not lose with the same feeling because football is still dangerous when you play against strong opponents. But at Lorient, it was very different. It is what it is."
Le Bris left Lorient by mutual consent in the aftermath of the drop and has since rebuilt his reputation on Wearside to such an extent that his promoted side has bucked the recent the trend for clubs emerging from the second tier by more than making a fist of it among the big boys.
Sunderland's 23-point haul to date has them in the top half of the table and one clear of Sunday's opponents, tangible evidence that the man at the top has bounced back from his disappointment in his native country.
Asked if managers can learn more from good experiences than they do from bad, he replied: "It's a good question, it's a good question.
"Sometimes you need to lose to push more because you're a human being. I try to keep the same process across positive and negative results, so I think it's balance.
"But often after a defeat, you want to react, so you give maybe a bit more. I try to be balanced."
Le Bris will hope that upward curve continues this weekend as Sunderland defend a nine-game unbeaten league run against their arch rivals, who won the last encounter 3-0, an FA Cup third round tie at the Stadium of Light in January 2024.
The match from a Newcastle perspective
Eddie Howe is demanding both cool heads and fire from his Newcastle players as he plots a first Premier League derby victory over Sunderland in 10 attempts.
The sides meet in the top flight for the first time since March 2016 on Sunday, when the Magpies will make the short trip to the Stadium of Light looking to end a wait for a win in the fixture which dates back to August 2011.
Head coach Howe and many of his players had a taste of what to expect in January last year when they went to Wearside and emerged with a 3-0 FA Cup third round success over the then Sky Bet Championship Black Cats, and he is conscious of the need for balance in their approach.
He said: "If you don't get the arousal levels right, if you hype the players up too much, then you can go out and not perform because you're over-thinking things, you're not playing the game, you're playing the atmosphere.
"You need cool heads, but you also need to have the fire in there. If the fire's not there in this type of game, then you're not going to perform either. It's a balancing act of trying to get the players in the right frame of mind."
Newcastle will arrive on Wearside on the back of a four-game unbeaten run in all competitions to face a Sunderland side who have confounded those who predicted they would go the way of many promoted sides and struggle to keep their heads above water.
Despite last weekend's 3-0 defeat at Manchester City, Regis Le Bris' men sit in ninth place in the table on 23 points - one more than their neighbours - after 15 games, and it would take a major collapse for them to slip into trouble.
However, asked if he would take a point, Howe, whose side drew 2-2 at Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday evening, replied: "No chance. We prepare every game to win. This will be no different.
"We've got to get the preparation right in a very short period of time. That's been a challenge we've had all season, and I think we're doing okay at this moment in time.
"We know we can improve, there's areas to get better in and we've got minimal training time to get those tweaks adjusted. But by kick-off, I can assure everybody that we'll be ready."
The game will be the first clash between Howe and Le Bris - Michael Beale was in charge at Sunderland for the FA Cup tie - but the Newcastle boss has been impressed by what the Frenchman has achieved since taking the helm in July last year.
He said: "I don't know him and it's my first time going up against him, but I think they've done well this season. I've been impressed by how they've played."