The Daly Brief | Spurs vs Sunderland, Premier League
Sat 03 January 2026, 13:45|
Tottenham Hotspur
"Sunderland have shone since promotion thanks to top signings like Granit Xhaka, the physicality of Dan Ballard and an admirable ability to adapt – but some crucial players are away at the moment."
Rob Daly, official club commentator, presenter and pundit
AFCON absentees...
Spurs have seen Pape Matar Sarr and Yves Bissouma leave on international duty in December, while Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are without key players right now too. But, arguably, no team has had to adapt to the loss of players to AFCON like Sunderland. In the December derby win over Newcastle, Noah Sadiki, Chemsdine Talbi, Reinildo and Bertrand Traore all started before heading out to Morocco the next day - while Arthur Masuaku and Habib Diarra have been at the tournament too.
Transfers and triumphs...
“We were new to this league with 14 new signings, so we had everything to discover (about the squad) everyday,” explained manager Regis Le Bris recently, of the club’s huge overhaul. There are numerous new recruits like Simon Adingra, Nordi Mukiele, Brian Brobbey, Robin Roefs and Xhaka (more on him later), while some established players like Jobe Bellingham left. However, they’ve enjoyed excellent results with a reshaped squad. Against Champions League teams so far this season, the Black Cats have won at Chelsea, beaten the aforementioned Newcastle and drawn with both Arsenal (H) and Liverpool (A) - only losing to Manchester City.
Keeping clean sheets...
It has been increasingly apparent for promoted teams, the importance of being defensively solid and adapting tactics upon their top-flight return - going from a regularly dominating team to a more pragmatic one. Sunderland have navigated the balance well - and their recent 0-0 draw at Brighton was a sixth clean sheet of the campaign, as many as they got in the entirety of their previous Premier League appearance (2016-17). Last season’s bottom three, all promoted sides, amassed just eight clean sheets between them - Leicester (3), Southampton (3) and Ipswich (2).
Players to watch...
Towering centre-back Ballard has been key to this defensive success; a threat at the other end too from set-pieces, scoring against West Ham and former club Arsenal. An ankle injury saw him miss their late December draw with Leeds – and some fans felt his physicality was missed. Xhaka has come back to the Premier League from Germany to anchor midfield, win tackles, get Sunderland up the pitch, playing by far the most passes in the team, and assist goals too (5) – with Wayne Rooney calling him the signing of the season so far. Roefs has looked a really smart acquisition in goal, while Mukiele from PSG has the strength to cope in this league defensively, not to mention boasting a mammoth long-throw. Brobbey provides a stocky figure up front, winger Adingra scored his first goal recently against Leeds and striker Wilson Isador has struck four times since promotion.
Switching system...
Tactically, Sunderland operate well in a low block, but should also go man-to-man when Spurs play out from goal kicks and set-pieces deep in their own half. While mainly going with a 4-2-3-1/4-3-3 formation, they’ve adapted for specific games, deploying a compact 4-4-2 for the recent draw at Anfield. This versality caught Chelsea cold too for a huge 2-1 away victory in West London. “Sunderland, nine games in the Premier League, they never played with a back five from the start. Never,” said now former Blues boss Enzo Maresca at the time, who admitted he had to tell his players to forget all the tactical preparation they’d put in that week as the Black Cats set up 5-4-1. No doubt Thomas Frank and his staff will be aware of all possibilities this afternoon.
