Sunderland, who were without Robin Roefs (£4.9m) and only had Granit Xhaka (£5.1m) on the bench, secured a narrow 1-0 win over Leeds United.
Here are our Scout Notes from Elland Road.
ROEFS INJURY LATEST
Roefs was absent from the matchday squad on Tuesday, a blow to his 11.3% ownership.
Ahead of the match, Regis Le Bris confirmed that he had picked up a hamstring injury.
“A minor hamstring injury. He stretched his leg during a good save for us at Bournemouth, but unfortunately, he picked up an injury. I hope it won’t be too long.” – Regis Le Bris on Robin Roefs
Le Bris later revealed Roefs could be out for two to three weeks.
“It’s not clear at the minute because it would be symptoms-based. It might be two, maybe three weeks. We’ll see for Newcastle [Gameweek 31], we’ll see, we’ll have to wait.” – Regis Le Bris on Robin Roefs
Bertrand Traore (£5.5m), meanwhile, had to be withdrawn late on with a potential knee injury.
Le Bris also said Jocelin Ta-Bi (£5.0m) has had surgery on his ankle and is expected to miss 10 to 12 weeks.
WHY XHAKA WAS A SUB
In another setback, Xhaka was benched after only returning from injury on Saturday, when he played 75 minutes in the 1-1 draw at Bournemouth.
Le Bris explained that the quick turnaround time between matches was a key factor.
“We are following the process for Granit, three days after the last game was a little bit too short for him to start. He’ll come on the pitch later.” – Regis Le Bris on Granit Xhaka
Xhaka was brought on just before the hour mark at Elland Road, and it was no coincidence that Sunderland showed immediate improvement after his arrival.
ANOTHER SUNDERLAND CLEAN SHEET, DIARRA PEN
With Roefs out, £4.0m goalkeeper Melker Ellborg was handed his debut, having only joined the club in the January transfer window.
The 22-year-old impressed, too, racking up four saves and earning the maximum bonus.
The performances of Omar Alderete (£4.1m) and Dan Ballard (£4.6m) in front of him certainly helped, with the centre-back partnership superb throughout.
Consistently positioned to intercept everything directed at them, they both banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points, with 22 and 16 DefCons respectively.
“Omar [Alderete] and Dan [Ballard] were impressive – they are back to their best level.” – Regis Le Bris
Sunderland have now kept nine clean sheets this season, the sixth-most of any team, with this their fourth on the road.
Above: Teams sorted by clean sheets in 2025/26
Le Bris’ troops found a way to win at Elland Road, but it certainly wasn’t pretty.
Indeed, Habib Diarra’s (£5.3m) second-half penalty was Sunderland’s only shot on target.
Diarra stepped up to score the spot-kick with Enzo Le Fee (£5.0m) on the pitch, although it was a really poor penalty.
Le Fee did at least deliver DefCon points, with some really impressive off-the-ball work.
CALVERT-LEWIN BLANK
As for Leeds, they dominated the ball (70% possession) but lacked quality in the final-third, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin (£5.7m) consequently blanking for the sixth time in seven matches.
In that period, he’s netted just one goal from 14 shots, a conversion rate of only 7.1%.
He’s also missed six of his seven big chances.
“Clarity in the final third. This is what we have to add. Performance-wise, what we have invested, we can’t complain. We are always self-critical. You need to get the ball into the net. This is what we need to improve.” – Daniel Farke
Joe Rodon (£3.9m) came the closest to finding the net on Tuesday, when his goal from an Anton Stach (£4.7m) delivery was ruled out for offside by VAR.
Stach banked DefCon and also had a free-kick saved, with three shots and two chances created in total.
