Phil Smith: The frustrated Wolves comment that showed how Sunderland's summer planning is paying off
Sunderland claimed another crucial win against Wolves at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Your starter for ten before reading this week's column: Which three Premier League clubs have generated the highest XG from set pieces so far this season?
It might not surprise you that Oliver Glasner's Crystal Palace lead the way, but it might sum up how the Premier League has changed since Sunderland's last stint that it's Arsenal and Chelsea in second and third. Set pieces are no longer a marginal gain for teams fighting for their lives at the bottom, but an integral part of every team's armoury. Too much so for many pundits, with the prevalence of set pieces and the general slowing of Premier League games as a result one of the key early talking points of the season so far. While noting their importance for teams at the bottom of the league, Jamie Carragher criticised teams at the top for relying so heavily on long throws during Monday Night Football.
Regardless of personal taste, this is the reality of the Premier League in 2025. It is more physical than ever before, and shifting to in increasingly direct style. Arsenal's set-piece prowess is probably the best example of that, though Manchester City's evolution under Pep Guardiola and with Erling Haaland leading the line is another.
And it's another area where Sunderland's extensive summer planning is bearing fruit in the opening weeks of the season.
Sunderland's recruitment focused on adding players with the athleticism to thrive in the Premier League, as well as ensuring that the team being built was capable of spending long periods of time out of possession as was always going to realistically be the case this season. Ensuring the team could thrive from set pieces, both defensively and offensively, was also key.
Sunderland currently sit eighth in Opta's table for XG generated from set pieces (2.86), though they will likely drop to ninth after Brentford's emphatic win away at West Ham United on Monday night is taken into consideration. At first glance you might think that is a fairly unexceptional statistic, given that Sunderland sit seventh in the table overall.
When you think about it, though, it's very much notable that Sunderland sit in the top half for any XG statistic as a newly-promoted side who are having less of the ball and spending significant periods of games defending their own penalty box. Remember that Sunderland are 15th in the table for XG more generally, second-bottom for shots on target and 17th for touches inside the opposition box. This underlines how they are maximising every set-piece opportunity to punch above their weight in attacking areas. For example, if we adjust those set piece XG stats, we see their full importance to Sunderland. They are fourth in the Premier League for % (42.31) of shots generated from set piece situations, and are second for the % (38.18) of their overall XG generated from set pieces. Remember, too, that Nordi Mukiele actually missed the first two games of the campaign and so that dangerous long throw has only been an option for three quarters of Sunderland's fixtures so far.
It's not about the goals generated directly from set plays, either, as so far there have only actually been two for Sunderland. It's about how using set pieces is allowing them to manage the game, and get up the pitch to build waves of pressure in a way that isn't easy for a newly-promoted sides whose opponents generally have bigger budgets and players stronger on the ball having had more time at the level.
Saturday's game against Wolves was the perfect example of that. The opening goal came during a long run of Sunderland pressure, in which they used long throws and corners to push Wolves back into their own box. From that platform Sunderland were able to show their individual quality, their opening goal coming after some fine bits of play from Xhaka, Le Fée, Hume and then of course Mukiele.
Speaking in his post-match press conference, Régis Le Bris outlined the importance of using set pieces not just for attacking threat but for managing the game.
"During this transfer window, we wanted to add physicality, a bit about the ability to run, and the ability to be good in the air, because this league is really tough on set-pieces," he said.
"So if you are not dominant, or at least at the same level, you will struggle. So we had the opportunity on long throws, for example, to be dangerous. It's really important and today in this league in England, in general, I think, every team tried to improve this part because you can defend, I think it's important, and you can attack and create something different. You can even generate or manage the momentum because you can decide when you have the ball, when you want to play, and you can set up properly your structure. Is it for the first contact or the second ball and the counter-press? So it's an important phase of the game."
Sunderland's planning wasn't just about recruiting players, either. Noting that most Premier League clubs operate now with a specialist set piece coach, Sunderland recruited James Brayne from Charlton Athletic and his increased focus has allowed Sunderland to improve quickly.
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How Sunderland's set-piece use frustrated Wolves boss Vitor Pereira
In his post-match press conference, Sunderland's use of set pieces drew thinly-veiled criticism from Wolves boss Vitor Pereira.
"The first half, I need to talk about throw-ins, free kicks, and the time that we waste to do it," Pereira said. "I don't see any game. I'm trying to remember what we did in the first half and what Sunderland did. Game was very poor, my opinion. This is my opinion."
Having watched Sunderland through the League One years, and even the Championship to an extent, it's a familiar feeling. Time and time again at the Stadium of Light teams would use pauses in play to take time out of the game and slow Sunderland's momentum. Where Pereira missed the point to an extent is that this wasn't about time wasting from Sunderland, but a way of assuming dominance in the first half. That they reached half time with an XG of over 0.75 compared to Wolves's 0.1 demonstrated that Sunderland weren't killing the game - they were in fact the team making the running.
More generally, many might agree with Pereira that set pieces are too dominant in Premier League games at the moment and that the product is suffering as a result. Sunderland, though, aren't here to please. They're here to compete and break a growing and worrying trend of teams winning promotion and being relegated immediately. In time, Sunderland want to improve their attacking play and reduce their dependence on set pieces, but for now it's a vital and very smart way of bridging the gap that has increasingly been more of a chasm.