STATS: Sunderland’s great defensive record vs Bent’s on target shooting for Aston Villa

Sunderland v Aston Villa, Saturday 15:00

Sunderland have now drawn six of their first nine games this season after a 0-0 draw with Stoke in their last outing

Simon Mignolet was outstanding for the Black Cats to keep a clean sheet

Sunderland are the lowest scoring team in the league, having scored just six goals in nine games, but only Arsenal have a better defensive record. Sunderland have conceded only 8 goals so far this season.

Five of those six goals have come from Steven Fletcher, so it’s no surprise that he has had more efforts on goal than any other Sunderland player with 13.

He is followed by James McClean and Craig Gardner who have each had ten efforts on goal, with McClean getting four of those on target and Gardner six. Overall Sunderland have had just 61 efforts at goal (in comparison, Luis Suarez tops the table for efforts on goal by an individual player with 50)

Sebastian Larsson, meanwhile, tops the Sunderland charts for passes in his opponent’s half with 141 completed

Paul Lambert returned to former club Norwich in Villa’s last Premier League game and came away with a point courtesy of a Christian Benteke goal

Benteke’s goal was his second in the Premier League this season having had 19 attempts at goal with 63% on target

Darren Bent and Brett Holman are the only other Villa players to have had ten or more efforts at goal, with Bent attempting 15 shots at goal with 9 on target and Holman attempting ten 10 with 3 on target

Full back Joe Bennett had previously made Villa’s task harder receiving a red card early in the second half

Bennett had previously attempted 13 tackles, winning nine but conceding five fouls