Sunderland slap Wednesday into next week

Sunderland welcomed a confident Sheffield Wednesday to the Stadium of Light for their first home game of the season. Wednesday hammered Plymouth in the opening round of fixtures and had signed significant striking talent in Ike Ugbo and Jamaal Lowe. Sunderland by comparison were seemingly still locked in a battle to sign a striker with that sort of experience, but with new manager Regis Le Bris, Sunderland look to be shaping a plan to play on the front foot to their strengths.

The opening moments saw The Owls press Sunderland fast, but gradually the Black Cats midfield trio of Dan Neil, Chris Rigg and Jobe Bellingham, averaging just 19 years of age, took control of the midfield with ferocious aggression and a very controlled high press.

With Jack Clarke and Patrick Roberts as outlets on either wing, Sunderland soon swung into action and ended up rattling home four goals in under 50 minutes. Cirkin turned scorer this week, Mayenda bagged a brace and Luke O'Nien turned up in the six yard box again to score for the second time in 8 days. And it might have been more as the team never let us in defence of the clean sheet.

As the game ended, Sunderland had climbed to second place in the table, the only team in the division yet to concede a goal. It was the first time Sunderland had won their opening two games of the season since Roy Keane was manager. So take a look at just how they did it.

My thanks to Alan Parkinson for the use of his drone footage at the start. He does lots of it. Go give his channel a look and a sub -    / @alanparkinson  

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Chapters
00:00 - Intro
01:45 - Stats
02:03 - Selection
02:23 - Initial Pressure
03:42 - Narrow Shape
04:16 - Set Piece Plans
05:46 - Pressure Points
07:18 - Mayenda hits the mark
07:56 - Stretching the lead
09:03 - Rohl with it
09:33 - Midfield Dominance
10:20 - Roberts & Rigg
11:55 - Offside Corner
12:34 - Desperate Danny Rohl
12:56 - Rohl gives up
14:11 - Aje Alese
14:43 - Jack Clarke
15:45 - Contained Aggression
16:50 - Subs
17:51 - More subs
18:22 - Late Chances
19:05 - Final Thoughts