Man United vs Sunderland prediction — 2026-12-30

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Premier League · Regular Season - 18 · 2026-12-30 20:00 UTC · Old Trafford, Manchester

Man UnitedTeam strength 1915.3 · projected league finish #4

MOST LIKELY RESULT

Man United

single most likely score: 2–0 (11.9%)

SunderlandTeam strength 1735.9 · projected league finish #17

Man United wins 62.8%Draw — neither team wins 23.6%Sunderland wins 13.6%Average simulated goals 1.96–0.82

These three percentages add to 100%. They show what may happen, not what will happen.

Why does Man United have the highest number? Man United currently has the stronger recent-results rating. The calculation also allows for Man United playing at home. Across many simulated versions of this match, the average goal totals are 1.96for Man United and 0.82 for Sunderland. That makes Man United the highest of the three result estimates at 62.8%. For the full league season, Man United is projected to earn about 65points and Sunderland about 42. Read the beginner's guide or see the technical calculation.

Model reading — citable summary

The Open Model gives Man United a 62.8% chance of beating Sunderland at home in the Premier League on 2026-12-30, with 23.6% for the draw and 13.6% for an away win. The single most likely score is 2–0 (11.9%), with average simulated goals of 1.96–0.82; the chance of both teams scoring is 49.4% and of three or more total goals 52.6%. Estimates come from an Elo → Dixon-Coles → Monte Carlo model, walk-forward backtested on 913 internationals (ranked probability score 0.175 vs 0.241 for random guessing) with a public prediction record.

Source: The Open Model (theopenmodel.com) · probabilities as of the latest daily build · data reusable under CC BY 4.0 with attribution.

Possible final scores

	0	1	2	3	4
0	7.5	3.8	2.1	0.6	0.1
1	10.9	11.3	4.1	1.1	0.2
2	11.9	9.8	4.0	1.1	0.2
3	7.8	6.4	2.6	0.7	0.1
4	3.8	3.1	1.3	0.4	0.1
5+	2.2	1.8	0.7	0.2	0.0

Home-team goals run down the left; away-team goals run across the top. Each cell is that score's estimated chance.

Most likely scores

2–0 11.9%1–1 11.3%1–0 10.9%2–1 9.8%3–0 7.8%0–0 7.5%

Other match possibilities

Both teams to score		49.4%
2 or more total goals		77.9%
3 or more total goals		52.6%
4 or more total goals		30.4%
Man United avoids defeat		86.4%
Sunderland avoids defeat		37.2%
Man United allows no goals		44.0%
Sunderland allows no goals		14.1%