Key stats
- Sunderland are undefeated in their last three games in the Premier League, their last longer unbeaten streak was from April 16th, 2016 to May 15th, 2016, a run of six games
- Sunderland’s Reinildo Mandava is the first player from Mozambique to be sent off in the Premier League, the first new nation to see a player receive a red card since Bosnia's Anel Ahmedhodzic was dismissed in May 2024.
- Aston Villa have failed to win in their last six games in the Premier League, their last longer winless streak was from February 1st, 2020 to July 9th, 2020, a run of 10 games
Highlights
Analysis
Aston Villa's Tyrone Mings completed 93 per cent of his passes (62/67) against Sunderland.
Despite being reduced to 10 men early in the game, Sunderland more than held their own during the match.
Match report
The two teams went toe to toe in the early stages with a particularly intriguing battle playing out between Reinildo Mandava and Evann Guessand, although it was the Villa wideman doing more of the defending.
Wilson Isidor had the game’s first attempts but headed Chemsdine Talbi’s cross off-target and saw his ambitious strike caught by Emiliano Martínez despite an awkward deflection off Tyrone Mings, before having a shot denied by Ezri Konsa.
Martínez then caught Omar Alderete’s header from a long Nordi Mukiele throw as the Black Cats continued to search for an opener.
The visitors finally had a shot of their own in the 27th minute when Morgan Rogers found Guessand after a free-kick was unconvincingly dealt with, but the Ivory Coast international fired straight at Robin Roefs.
Sunderland still suffered a blow shortly after when Mandava was sent off for kicking out at Matty Cash after being fouled by the Villa right-back.
Régis Le Bris responded by going to a back five, and the hosts made it to HT without any further damage with Emiliano Buendía blazing his shot over the crossbar after collecting Roefs’ shaky punch.
Villa showed intent after the restart, but John McGinn smashed his speculative shot harmlessly over.
The Stadium of Light was soon buzzing with anticipation though, as Sunderland’s aerial threat caused problems with Alderete’s looping header hitting the crossbar.
Unai Emery made a double change shortly before the hour mark and Harvey Elliott saw a shot blocked, and his side’s wait for their first PL goal of the season finally came to an end when Roefs made a mess of dealing with Cash’s speculative strike from range.
Their lead lasted just nine minutes though, as Granit Xhaka nodded the ball towards Isidor for the striker to clinically finish.
Elliott sent a first-time shot marginally wide and Ollie Watkins failed to even connect with his attempted header, as Sunderland fought to retain their unbeaten PL record at the Stadium of Light this season.
While Villa at least got their first league goal, they still await a first competitive victory this term and remain in the bottom three as a result.
Flashscore Man of the Match: Nordi Mukiele (Sunderland)
Post-match comments
Aston Villa boss Unai Emery to BBC Sport: "Frustrated and disappointed a little bit, but not with the result. It should have been easier to take advantage, but we were not playing with our identity, with the ideas we have been building in the last three years.
"With some new players we have to adapt with the players we have, and we know we want to control the game, to dominate but I am disappointed and frustrated more for how we were not achieving our identity.
"There is still work to do with the point we achieved, it’s not enough, of course, after playing with one more player for 60 minutes, we should be happier, we have to work and be demanding, to get our consistency through our demands."
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris to BBC Sport: "The value of this one is really important because we had different experiences today.
"We started really well 11 v 11, we were in our gameplan, well connected with the opportunities and were in a good place.
"Then the red card came - but the team reacted really well. It was important to stay 0-0 and then at half-time we decided on a new game plan."