Sunderland return to Premier League action with a trip to Bournemouth on Sunday afternoon.

Bournemouth head coach Marco Rose has challenged his players to carry the momentum caused by their historic Europa League win against Sturm Graz into Sunday’s home clash with Premier League rivals Sunderland.

Both clubs have enjoyed perfect starts to their maiden Europa League campaigns by collecting six points from the first two games of the league phase. For Sunderland, a dramatic 2-1 win at Portuguese second tier side Torreense that followed up their home win against AZ Alkmaar on matchday one ensured they will make the long trip to the south coast on a high.

However, Bournemouth, who are competing in Europe for the first time in their history, have also remained perfect after an impressive 2-1 win at Real Sociedad last month was followed up by Thursday night’s home win against Graz. Goals from Evanilson, Rayan and Álvaro Rodríguez were enough to help the Cherries see off their Austrian visitors at the Vitality Stadium.

For all of their progress in the Europa League, both Sunderland and Bournemouth have struggled to find momentum in the Premier League - but Rose is hopeful Thursday’s win can give his side a platform to improve their domestic form.

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He told TNT Sports: "Performance-wise, clean sheet, attitude, effort - a deserved win and now we have to continue, have to get consistent in these things and Sunderland is the next challenge. I believe in this team and know they are always confident despite a difficult situation. The squad is working, everyone is keen to play, everyone deserves to play and its good for us for the busy weeks to have a competitive squad. If we stick together and play like this and we have our fans then we are hard to play and it's hard to beat us. That's what we should take into the next game."

The Cherries will be without Eli Junior Kroupi, Julian Araujo and Alex Scott for Sunday’s game - but they are hoping to have Veljko Milosavljevic back in contention as he closes in on a return from a knee injury. Justin Kluivert and Amine Adli will also be available after they made their comeback from injury as substitutes in Thursday night’s win.

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