Why Sunderland's Aji Alese is looking forward to facing Stoke City and what shocked him after West Ham move

The 22-year-old defender has made 19 Championship appearances this season, following his move to Wearside from West Ham in the summer, and started eight of the Black Cats’ last nine games since recovering from an ankle injury.

“Obviously when I first came I wasn’t playing as much,” Alese, who predominantly played for West Ham’s under-23s side, told Sunderland’s website. “Then I think September time I broke into the team and felt like I did well. I felt like the team picked up some good results.

“Then obviously I had an injury, we had the World Cup break, came back and I felt like I did well.

“I struggled at first coming from 23s football, it is a big difference coming into men’s football but overall I feel like I’ve enjoyed it and feel like I’ve done well.”

“I feel like I’ve adapted well. Like I said, when I first came it was a bit of a shock and was something I had to get used to.

“I feel like over the season and as the season progresses I’m progressing with it and I’m finding it easier going into games.”

Alese is set to keep his place at left-back when Sunderland host Stoke City, managed by former Black Cats boss Alex Neil, this weekend.

Tony Mowbray’s side will hope to benefit from not having a midweek fixture in what has been a congested schedule in recent weeks.

“It’s a really interesting game, we are all looking forward to it,” Alese added when discussing the game against Stoke.

“Me personally I’m looking forward to it. I didn’t play against them in the reverse fixture so I’m looking forward to playing against them.

“As a team we’ll work hard the rest of this week, go in and hopefully win the game.”

When asked about the physical battle Stoke could provide, Alese replied: “I guess they have a reputation of that in the past, but we’ll do our due diligence leading up to the game and prepare and try and get the three points.”