Granit who? It may have only been Burnley providing the opposition but a comprehensive win for Sunderland on Monday gave hope that the Black Cats can still prosper without their injured captain.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Stadium of Light.
MORE POINTS FOR MUKIELE – AND IT COULD HAVE BEEN MORE
It’s rinse and repeat when it comes to Nordi Mukiele (£4.5m).
Last week, we wrote how Mukiele had delivered a clean sheet, attacking return and/or DefCon points nine Gameweeks in a row. We can now make that 10.
Not just banking clean sheet points, Mukiele recorded an assist for the third successive match, getting forward to set up Habib Diarra (£5.3m) for Sunderland’s second goal.
It could have been a monster haul, too, with Mukiele blazing over a presentable chance of his own midway through the second half.
And he was unlucky not to grab a bonus point. As Tom Hadley pointed out, an Opta data update – which came after the FPL scores were finalised for the week – had Dan Ballard (£4.6m) dropping back down to 31 BPS (seen below):
Long story short, Mukiele ought to have had a bonus point – not that many owners will be too unhappy finishing one shy of a double-digit haul.
It’s worth mentioning again about the dip in DefCon points, however. The three consecutive assists (his expected assists total is 0.48 in that time!) have slightly masked the fact that he’s less likely to pick up those handy DefCon returns when stationed at right-back, as he pretty much is now, rather than as an orthodox centre-half, where he has previously played for the Mackems.
His two lowest DefCon tallies of 2025/26 have come in the last two Gameweeks (below):
Something to monitor, rather than fret about – and there should be a lot more defensive work to get through at the Emirates in Gameweek 25!
Ballard did reach the DefCon threshold for the seventh time in his last nine starts.
DIARRA THREAT AS LE FEE AGAIN SITS DEEP
The only other Sunderland player to pick up DefCon returns was Enzo Le Fee (£4.9m), who absolutely smashed through the required target with 20 contributions.
In the absence of Granit Xhaka (£5.1m), Le Fee again did a lot of the deeper, dirtier work alongside Noah Sadiki (£4.9m).
Above: Sunderland players’ average positions in Gameweek 24
Le Fee didn’t touch the ball once in the Burnley box.
Instead, Habib Diarra – number 19 above – was the central midfielder who had the responsibility of driving forward. He burst into the box for Sunderland’s opening two goals, albeit only one of them went down as his thanks to an Axel Tuanzebe (£3.9m) deflection on the opener.
Diarra had more penalty box touches and final-third touches than anyone else in red and white:
Remember that Diarra might be up to take Sunderland’s next penalty, too, especially after Enzo missed his last effort.
Despite the lack of goal, Brian Brobbey (£5.6m) was impressive up top. He would have had an assist had Diarra’s strike been on target for the opener, while he drew a smart stop from Martin Dubravka (£4.0m) just before Mukiele’s big chance.
Chemsdine Talbi (£4.9m), who like Diarra was making his first post-AFCON start, rounded off the scoring with a stunner from distance. Reinildo Mandava (£3.8m) bagged a cheeky assist for that one.
BURNLEY POOR
Burnley had turned in some good performances lately, drawing with Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool and Manchester United.
But this display was cut from the same cloth as the Brighton defeat in Gameweek 20, with only five shots arriving.
Their xG was miserable, with not one effort on target:
“I didn’t see it coming, certainly off the back of the games we’ve come out of. Maybe it’s easy to bring a certain level of performance and a certain level against Man United at home, Liverpool away and Tottenham at home.
“We just fell way, way short tonight of just the core hard basics of what you need to bring to a game and hence why we come out with never really looking like we were ever going to lay a glove on Sunderland.” – Scott Parker, via Burnley Express
Dubravka would have been disappointed in not stopping Diarra’s strike but there was little he could have done about goals one and three, and the good far outweighs the bad from the Slovakian this season.
