Sunderland came from behind to beat Everton 3-1 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, turning a late-season Premier League match into a result that could reshape both clubs’ final weeks. Granit Xhaka was not among the scorers, but the win moved Sunderland up to ninth and left Everton staring at a six-game run without victory.
Everton had led at the break after Merlin Rohl scored his first goal for the club through a deflection, and the home crowd of 52,590 had reason to believe the afternoon might end with something to celebrate. Instead, Brian Brobbey equalised in the 59th minute, Enzo Le Fee put Sunderland ahead in the 81st minute and Wilson Isidor added a third in stoppage time to complete the turnaround.
Le Fee was named Player of the Match after driving the comeback that lifted Sunderland to within one point of Brentford in eighth place. With one match left, Sunderland will host Chelsea on the final day and still have a chance to secure European qualification for the first time since 1973, a prospect that looked remote when they were expected to struggle after promotion.
For Everton, the defeat was damaging in more immediate terms. They remain 11th and three points off eighth place, leaving their top-eight hopes all but over and extending a run that has now brought six games without a win. Fans booed the team off at Hill Dickinson Stadium after the final whistle, a sharp reaction to a finish that has left little room for optimism.
The afternoon also carried a quieter note of farewell. Seamus Coleman came on as a late substitute in what was his final home game for Everton after announcing this week that he will leave the club at the end of the campaign. For a player whose Everton career began in 2008 and stretched across generations of the team’s supporters, the moment offered a brief pause inside a result that otherwise belonged entirely to Sunderland.
What Sunderland have done since promotion is no longer a footnote. They are in the conversation for Europe, and they have earned that position by taking points when the pressure has been highest. Everton, by contrast, are left with a season closing in frustration and a home crowd that made its verdict plain long before the players reached the tunnel.
