Sunderland are only the third newly promoted team in the last seven Premier League seasons (since 2019-20) to win as many as eight points from their opening five games of the campaign (W2 D2 L1) alongside Brentford in 2021-22 and Fulham in 2022-23 (both also eight).
Regis Le Bris spoke to BBC Match of the Day after Sunderland's draw against Aston Villa: "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.
"They did really well with the deep block and it became a set-piece game. Then after we conceded we reacted well again. The way we want to play together, to react, to suffer, we knew this would be the case often."
Did you know?
Sunderland are only the third newly promoted team in the last seven Premier League seasons (since 2019-20) to win as many as eight points from their opening five games of the campaign (W2 D2 L1) alongside Brentford in 2021-22 and Fulham in 2022-23 (both also eight).
Hear more from Le Bris on BBC Sounds
Hear reaction from Nick Barnes and Gary Bennett
Category: General Sports
