Sunderland have earned high praise for their excellent start to the Premier League season

Sky Sports pundit and former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has named Sunderland duo Robin Roefs and Granit Xhaka in his Premier League team of the season so far.

Roefs and Xhaka have been key players for the Black Cats, who have surpassed all pre-season expectations to sit sixth in the Premier League table at Christmas. Carragher picked his team of the season to date on Monday Night Football, and highlighted how impressive Roefs has been statistically and how he summed up Sunderland’s aggressive approach to the summer transfer market.

"I'm going to go with the Sunderland goalkeeper, Robin Roefs,” Carragher explained.

“I've been really impressed with him, he's got the second-best xG prevention and had a brilliant start to his Premier League career for Sunderland, who have one of the best defensive records in the league, and he's been a big part of it. It symbolises what Sunderland tried to do in the summer as well, this kind of quite ruthless approach to bring in 14 new players. They recognised that Leeds and Burnley were significantly better as a Championship team, so they decided 'we need to raise the standard right across the team' and Roefs has certainly typified that.”

Granit Xhaka beat stern competition to earn a place in Carragher’s midfield, including Chelsea’s Moises Caicedo. Carragher said he felt Xhaka was the single most impactful signing that a Premier League club had made in the summer window.

"Formation wise, we've gone with a standard 4-2-3-1,” Carragher explained.

“So I've gone with [Granit] Xhaka and [Declan] Rice in there. The other one to put in was [Moises] Caicedo and that was a really tough one. I didn't want to put all three because I think they're almost, not defensive, but I want to put an attacking midfield player in there. I've obviously got Bruno Fernandes. I've said I think Rice just has the edge on Caicedo.

"But I just felt the impact of Xhaka this season is the biggest impact of a signing or effect on a team. It feels like he's just so important to Sunderland. So I just felt he had to be in the team.”

Dan Ballard’s contribution this season was also praised on the show, with the centre back named in the ‘stats’ team of the season so far.

Carragher’s Premier League team of the season so far: Roefs; Munoz, Guehi, Gabriel, Calafiori; Rice, Xhaka; Rogers, Fernandes, Semenyo; Haaland

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Régis Le Bris reflects on Sunderland’s draw at Brighton

Régis Le Bris says Sunderland's squad players have shown they can step up during the Africa Cup of Nations, but added that they will need time to find their best level.

Le Bris made four changes to his side as they drew 0-0 with Brighton on Saturday, and all of those were enforced due to international duty. Sunderland played well in the first hour of the game, though the hosts finished firmly in the ascendancy and missed one big chance through Yasin Ayari.

Though there was some frustration for Sunderland that they had not taken one of their chances earlier in the game, but it was for the most a step in the right direction.

“First of all, we won 26 points before AFCON, which is important," Le Bris said.

"That is a really big achievement. Now, we are going into a different phase of the season, and it is obvious that things will be a little less composed because we will have less players to choose from. The players who didn’t play so far will need time to step up. We trust their quality and their mindset, but you can’t just switch on and be straight at the level. We have to give them opportunities. They will need time, but today they showed they were consistent and ready to go."

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