Prior to the current 25-26 season, Sunderland spent the last eight seasons out of the Premier League. Four years in the Championship and four years in League One.

Despite the long spell away from England’s top football league, Sunderland have played the first half of the 25-26 Premier League seasons as if they belong. After 17 matches played, Sunderland sits sixth in the Premier League. This would likely come as a surprise to most football fans if you were told at the beginning of the season that Sunderland would be in sixth place by Christmas.

Keep in mind that in the last two Premier League seasons, all three newly promoted squads were relegated back to the Championship at the end of the season. However, despite all odds against them, Sunderland are performing and competing with the best of the best.

In this article, we take a closer look at Sunderland’s strong start to the 25-26 Premier League season.

Robin Roefs’ Goalkeeping Heroics Are Fueling Sunderland’s Premier League Success

A key component to Sunderland’s success so far in the Premier League this 25-26 season is Robin Roefs, their goalkeeper. Roefs has played all 17-games for The Black Cats and has managed 57 saves from 74 shots-on-target.

Roefs’ 57 saves is the highest for any goalkeeper in the Premier League after 17-matches (tied with Burnley’s Martin Dúbravka). What’s more impressive though is Robin Roefs save percentage, which is 77% and the highest amongst keepers who have faced a similar number of shots as him.

As seen in the graph below, the blue bars are the total number of saves (left axis) while the orange line represents the save percentage (right axis). The visual supports the data that Roefs is having a strong season.

It should be noted that there are a few goalkeepers who have a higher save percentage than Roefs. However, they haven’t faced the same number of shots as him.

John (Brazilian GK) from Nottingham Forest, James Trafford from Manchester City and Emiliano Martinez from Aston Villa have save percentages of 100%, 80% and 79.2%, respectively.

However, these goalkeepers have only faced 2, 15 and 48 shots-on-target in the 25-26 Premier League so far, respectively. It will be interesting to compare their save percentages as the season progresses and they face more shots-on-target.

Roefs is also only one of three goalkeepers to have a 100% penalty kick save record so far this Premier League season. Roefs, Martinez, and Donnarumma have all faced only one penalty kick and saved it.

It should be noted that Kelleher (Brentford) has saved two spot kicks, but he’s also allowed two. For reference, Dúbravka has faced five penalties so far in the Premier League this season and hasn’t saved one.

Sunderland’s Defensive Record Explains Their Strong Start to the 2025–26 Season

In addition to Roefs’ strong record in net, Sunderland’s defence as a whole is one of the main reasons for their success in the first half of the 25-26 Premier League season.

Out of Sunderland’s first 17-matches, only four of them have been losses. That’s the same number of losses as Manchester City and Chelsea so far this season.

And as you might have guessed, the minimal losses is as a result of conceding only 17 goals so far. That averages out to one goal conceded per Premier League match, the same number as Chelsea and only one more than Manchester City, who have conceded 16 goals.

For reference, Arsenal leads the league with only allowing 10 goals against in the first 17 matches.

Why Sunderland Concede So Few Goals Despite Low Possession

For all teams ranked higher than Sunderland (Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City, Liverpool and Aston Villa), one key to their success is possession. All of those squads have greater than 50% of possession per Premier League match on average in the 25-26 season.

It makes sense. It’s hard for your opponent to score a goal when they don’t have possession. Liverpool leads the league and average 60.6% possession per match.

However, Sunderland rank third lowest in the Premier League for possession, averaging 42.4% per match so far in the 25-26 season. Only West Ham and Burnley have had lower possession on average, at 42.2% and 41%, respectively.

For Sunderland however, their secret to conceding such few goals is their defensive contributions.

Sunderland rank fourth highest in the Premier League for the number of tackles made in their defensive third of the pitch. However, they rank fifth lowest and fourth lowest for the number of tackles made in the midfield and attacking thirds of the pitch, respectively.

Specifically for tackling opposition dribblers, Sunderland rank second best for the most successful tackles with 163. Additionally, this also ranks Sunderland in second for success percentage of dribblers tackled with 60.1%.

Sunderland aren’t a high press team in the opposition’s half, they tend to sit back, stay compacted and defend. This is further reinforced by their blocked shots statistic, which is currently third highest in the Premier League with 74.

You can see Sunderland’s defensive actions in the graph below vs. the current top four of the Premier League (data as of December 23, 2025 or as of matchweek 17).

Due to the lack of possession Sunderland have in comparison to the top four squads, they’re required to perform more defensive actions. But to date, Sunderland have been successful in those defensive actions, which is a large contributor to their strong start to the Premier League season.

Furthermore, Sunderland have made 567 clearances to date. This equates to more than 33 per match in their 17 Premier League matches.

A clearance is defined as “a defensive action where a player attempts to get the ball away from a dangerous zone near their own goal with no immediate target recipient for the ball.”

Essentially, they don’t try to play their way out of danger. More often than not, after successfully tackling an opponent or blocking on of their shots, Sunderland hoof the ball up the field to clear the danger and reset.

Low xG, High Efficiency: How Sunderland Are Outperforming Their Attacking Metrics

Now onto Sunderland’s offensive actions. As a squad, Sunderland have the lowest xG in the league at 14.7.

As a reminder, xG is expected goals. Each chance is assigned a probability that the shot will result in a goal. There are many factors that determine an xG probability, such as distance from goal, body part of shot, lead up play, etc. The higher the xG of a single chance, the more likely that the average player would score in the exact same scenario.

However, despite Sunderland’s low xG metric, they have 19 goals for (17 goals scored and two own goals scored by opponents). Meaning they are outperforming their xG rating. Sunderland are scoring more goals than expected.

To put it in perspective, Wolves have a marginally better xG at 14.9 but have only have 9 goals for.

When looking at other offensive statistics, Sunderland often ranks in the lowest 25% percentile in the Premier League. Sunderland are ranked fourth from the bottom for number of shots (161) and are ranked third from the bottom for number of shots on target (49).

What’s even more interesting is that with Sunderland’s 19 goals for, they are tied for the fourth fewest goals for. However, despite the lack of goals scored, Sunderland still sit sixth in the Premier League currently.

This further underlines Sunderland’s strong defensive attributes as discussed above. While Sunderland may struggle to put the ball in the back of the net, they definitely excel at keeping the ball out of their own net.

Home Advantage and Late Goals Have Been Crucial for Sunderland This Season

In addition to Sunderland’s strong defensive record overall, they have one of the best home records in the Premier League. Sunderland are yet to lose a match at the Stadium of Light in the 25-26 Premier League season.

They have won five matches and drawn three. All of Sunderland’s four loss have come on the road (Manchester City, Fulham, Manchester United and Burnley).

Sunderland have also been notorious at scoring late goals so far this 25-26 season. On three different occasions, Sunderland have scored in 90^th minute stoppage time that has changed the outcome of a match.

On August 30^th, Sunderland scored a 90+6-minute goal to beat Brentford 2-1. On October 25^th, Sunderland scored a 90+3-minute goal to beat Chelsea 2-1. And on November 8^th, Sunderland scored a 90+4-minute goal to tie Arsenal 2-2.

Sunderland have also scored one more 90^th minute stoppage time goal against West Ham in the 90+2-minute on August 16^th. However, Sunderland were already winning the match 2-0 before the goal.

There have been 46 goals scored in 90^th minute stoppage time so far in the 25-26 Premier League season. Sunderland have scored four of those or about 9% of them, which is more than their fair share.

There are four clubs who have scored four goals in 90^th minute stoppage time. However, only Brentford has scored more goals in 90^th minute stoppage time and they’ve scored five.

Can Sunderland Sustain Their Premier League Momentum Beyond Christmas?

Well, that’s it for this article. In this post, we take a look at Sunderland’s success so far in the 2025-2026 Premier League season after the first 17 matches.

Sunderland were promoted back to the Premier League after an eight year hiatus. In the last two Premier League seasons (23-24 and 24-25), all three newly promoted clubs have been relegated back to the Championship after their first season.

However, despite all odds against them, Sunderland are going into Christmas sitting in sixth place in the Premier League. They have one of the best home records in England’s top division and are on track to remain a Premier League club come the end of the 25-26 season.

Contributing factors to Sunderland’s success so far are primarily their defensive actions. Robin Roefs’ has made the most saves of any Premier League goalkeeper so far and his save percentage is amongst the best in the league.

While Sunderland don’t score many goals relative to their Premier League ranking, their tackling, shot blocking, and clearances are three key reasons why they continue to win football matches.

And lastly, their desire to win and never give up cannot be understated.

As outlined above, on three separate occasions, Sunderland have scored in 90^th minute stoppage time which has changed the outcome of the match. Those goals resulted in two wins and one draw, earning Sunderland five more points. Without those five points, Sunderland would be sitting in 14^th place right now.

What are your thoughts on Sunderland’s performances so far in the 25-26 Premier League season? Do you think they can continue this momentum into the second half of the season? Let us know in the comments section below.

Stay tuned for future posts and please send us a message if there is a specific topic you would like to see covered. Additionally, if you have any ideas on how to improve these articles, please send them our way too.

As always, thanks for taking the time to read these posts!

JC

All data in this article is from fbref.com so, thanks to them!

Main photo by Ged Mullen-Buick on Unsplash