Premier League clubs ranked by their average xG during the opening three months of the season.

Sunderland’s attacking play and their options at the top end of the pitch have been an ongoing topic of conversation during what has been a challenging opening to the season.

As it stands ahead of next weekend’s visit to Aston Villa, the Black Cats are the lowest goalscorers in the Premier League with just eight goals in their first 10 league games of the campaign. Of those goals, three have come from the penalty spot and they were also scored by Enzo Le Fee, and another three came via Brian Brobbey’s impressive hat-trick at Manchester City.

Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey scored a hat-trick against Manchester City | Getty Images

placeholder image — Sunderland striker Brian Brobbey scored a hat-trick against Manchester City | Getty Images

Nilson Angulo and Wilson Isidor are the only other players to score for Sunderland in the league this season and both of their strikes came in the opening week of the campaign during an away defeat at Ipswich Town and a home win against Fulham.

One other concerning stats comes with open play goals with Le Fee’s penalties in the win against Chelsea and defeat at Coventry preceded by three games where the Black Cats failed to find the net and that means they have not scored an open play goal since Brobbey completed his treble at the Etihad Stadium just under two months ago.

Sunderland possess a number of dangerous attacking players and they have created chances - but how does the quality of those chances compare to other clubs in the Premier League? We take a look at the average xG (average expected goals) to assess the quality of the Black Cats attacking play.

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