luckadjusted
Premier League Matchday 5 · 2026-27

Matchday 2 · Premier League 2026-27 · August 30, 2026

Goals only: this source has no shots, so the replay comes from each side's goals over the season.

Sunderland 1–0 Fulham: lucky or expected?

Sunderland beat Fulham 1–0, and the goals lean Sunderland’s way: 4 wins in 10, 3 for Fulham, 3 end level. Rated on this season’s goals, Sunderland were expected to score 1.5 here and Fulham 1.1.

Full time

Goals
Sunderland 1
Fulham 0

August 30, 2026

Our prediction before kickoff: Sunderland win 39%

Luck index +42 Sunderland lucky · −42 Fulham

Our source has this match’s goals but not its shots, so it is replayed from what each side’s goals over the season say: both teams rated on every goal scored and conceded, and the match played again 4,000 times from those ratings. How often does this result come out? How the goals-only replay works

Ten replays. Sunderland win 4, 3 end level, Fulham win 3.

  1. 1 SUN 1 FUL 0
  2. 2 SUN 1 FUL 0
  3. 3 SUN 2 FUL 0
  4. 4 SUN 3 FUL 0
  5. 5 SUN 0 FUL 0
  6. 6 SUN 2 FUL 2
  7. 7 SUN 0 FUL 0
  8. 8 SUN 0 FUL 2
  9. 9 SUN 0 FUL 1
  10. 10 SUN 1 FUL 2

Our prediction before kickoff

We had Sunderland 39% to win, 28% for a draw, Fulham 34%. Sunderland won: the pick was right. The final margin was 0.9 goals from ours; 52% of matches like this end further from the forecast than that.

Most of the distance between a forecast and a final score is luck: even with both clubs’ strength known exactly, a few shots decide a soccer match. This match was played before our forecasts went live, so this one was made afterwards, the same way, from only what was known before kickoff. How our predictions have done

The goals

Our source lists this match’s score but not who scored or when, so there is no timeline of it. The replay above needs only the score.

About these numbers

Scores and goals from openfootball (public domain). It has no shots, so there is no expected goals for this match and no finishing luck: the replay, the in-game win probability and the luck index are our own models, built from the season’s goals alone (methodology and validation). The luck index is how far the result was from what the goals say. Sunderland win 58% of replays (a draw counted as half).

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