Sunderland v Fulham: Key stats and talking points

Sunderland host Fulham at the Stadium of Light on Sunday with both sides looking to bounce back from defeats in their opening games. Regis le Bris said his side "were not clinical enough" as they slumped to a 2-1 defeat away to Ipswich Town last Saturday. One encouraging sign, however, came in the form of Nilson Angulo notching his first goal for the club. The Ecuador winger, fresh from scoring at the World Cup, is looking to become just the fourth Sunderland player to score in the opening two games of a Premier League season, after Niall Quinn in 2000-01, Michael Chopra in 2007-08 and Darren Bent in 2009-10. Mackems not making the most of the ball Sunderland had 62% possession in the Ipswich clash, their highest figure in a league game since their return to the top-flight last season, but it's not something that's always benefited them. In that period, the Black Cats have lost 50% of their games when having more of the ball, compared with just 24% when they have less of it, meaning they tend to pick up more points when they don't dominate possession. [BBC] Ominously, the Mackems have won none of their past six Premier League home games against Fulham, drawing three and losing three, although they did win the equivalent fixture in the 2017-18 Championship season. In the top tier, you have to go all the way back to January 2009 when a Kenwyne Jones strike sealed a 1-0 win. Arbeloa Craven more from his players Fulham found themselves on the wrong end of a five-goal thriller against Chelsea at Craven Cottage in the first Monday night game of the season, conceding early in both halves. Head Coach Alvaro Arbeloa lamented the lapses in concentration, noting: "For me, they are easy goals for them and mistakes we cannot make. We need to improve and be more ready in the first minute, that is for sure." Externally, much of the focus afterwards was on the huge gap between his two centre-backs, Calvin Bassey and George Cuenca, with the Spaniard having a particularly torrid time on his first league start since February. As their team look to bounce back, the Fulham faithful will be wary of their poor record on the road this calendar year. The Cottagers have won the fewest away points of any ever-present team in the Premier League in 2026 and have won their opening away match in just two of their past nine league campaigns. [BBC] One encouraging sign for Arbeloa is that the Chelsea loss wasn't down to a lack of effort from his players, who he described as having "the energy and ambition I want". Fulham covered the most distance (121km) of any team on matchday one, while only Sunday's opponents Sunderland (40), Bournemouth (40) and Arsenal (38) made more runs ahead of the ball than the Cottagers (36) on the opening weekend.