Sunderland’s impressive home form continued with a victory over Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Here are our Scout Notes from the Stadium of Light.
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SUNDERLAND’S EXCELLENT HOME FORM
Sunderland extended their unbeaten record at the Stadium of Light to 11 matches, as they triumphed 2-1 over Crystal Palace.
The Black Cats now sit fifth in the home table, having racked up six wins and five draws:
They’ll have a fine chance to extend that impressive home record when they play host to Burnley in Gameweek 24, too.
Regis Le Bris’ side came from behind to beat a beleaguered Palace outfit 2-1 on Saturday, thanks to goals from Enzo Le Fee (£4.9m) and Brian Brobbey (£5.5m).
The budget duo have now delivered a couple of attacking returns apiece in the last three Gameweeks, with Le Fee bouncing back from his Panenka penalty miss at Brentford in style.
As for Brobbey, he put in a hell of a shift up front and caused all sorts of problems for Palace’s backline, with his superb second-half finish the highlight.
“Brian is getting better game after game; you can feel it. His teammates are really comfortable playing through him when he is in the box. When he is in the box, he is a massive threat, and he has built some strong understanding with them. Now we are seeing the best version of Brian.” – Regis Le Bris on Brian Brobbey
MUKIELE SUPERB
Defensively sound, particularly after the break, Sunderland restricted Palace to just 0.69 expected goals (xG).
Nordi Mukiele (£4.4m) once again excelled for Sunderland in Gameweek 22. He provided the assist for Le Fee’s equaliser, marking his fourth attacking return of the season, and banked defensive contribution (DefCon) points.
His DefCon success rate now stands at 55%, ranking him eighth among defenders with a minimum of 500 minutes played.
And with plenty of quality driving up the right flank on Saturday, Mukiele is now the seventh top-scoring defender in FPL, with 98 points.
Elsewhere, the out-of-position Trai Hume (£4.5m) produced a match-high four shots and played very well, almost finding the net late on.
Reinildo Mandava (£3.8m), meanwhile, made his first start for the Black Cats since returning from the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON).
GLASNER “FEELS ABANDONED”
This defeat capped off a miserable week for Palace, who are set to lose club captain Marc Guehi (£5.3m) to Manchester City in the coming days.
Oliver Glasner might be off sooner than the summer, too, in light of his post-match outburst.
“I feel we are being abandoned completely. I can’t blame any player. They did everything they could and this has been going on for weeks and months now. We have 12, 13 players from the squad available and we feel no support. The worst thing is selling our captain one day before playing a Premier League game. We are preparing, it’s the first [full] week we are training since September, and then we are selling our captain one day before a game. So, I have no understanding of this. I have always kept my mouth [shut], but I can’t because I have to defend these players, because it was the 35th game today. Yes, we get under pressure here and we are unlucky. But again, you can’t react, we can’t help them, it makes it really tough.
“If you get your heart torn out twice this season, one day before a game, it was with Eze in the summer, it was with Guehi now… what should I tell the players all the time? What should I tell them? And then I see the performance today for 50, 60 minutes – it was not easy with all the circumstances going on here with 12 players from the squad. I look at the bench, I can’t react, just kids on the bench, and this has not happened yesterday, this is weeks ago. That’s why I’m really frustrated today.” – Oliver Glasner
Palace are now 10 matches without a win in all competitions, with Chelsea up next in Gameweek 23.
On Saturday, Yeremy Pino (£5.8m) added to his FA Cup goal with another impressive strike, lifting the ball over Robin Roefs (£5.0m) to put Palace ahead.
But they failed to build on that lead, with two big misses from Jean-Philippe Mateta (£7.5m), who has also been linked with a move away from the club this month. The Frenchman also had the ball in the net, but the linesman’s flag went up.
Elsewhere, Maxence Lacroix (£5.1m) remained in the middle of the back three, with Jefferson Lerma (£4.9m) lining up in Guehi’s position to his left.
But only Chris Richards (£4.4m) banked DefCons, achieving this for the fourth time in his last five matches. On the other occasion, he fell just one short of the defender threshold, finishing with nine.
