Sunderland have made a superb start to life in the Premier League and beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge on Saturday

Régis Le Bris says he is still learning about his Sunderland squad as the club steps up their preparation for the January transfer window.

The Black Cats will be looking to build on their fine start to the season and bolster their ranks again after a transformative summer, with the club’s recruitment department working to scout potential targets under Florent Ghisolfi and Kristjaan Speakman.

Le Bris joins the process ahead of a window to give his views on priority positions and potential targets, which will begin next month. His views will continue to be shaped in the coming weeks, as opportunities for those who haven’t necessarily featured regularly up until this point grow.

“It's a little early for me [to think about January] because right now, my main focus is on this squad.” Le Bris said.

“I'm a little bit blind to this part of the process because at the moment, the team is working hard [behind the scenes] on their own. I will come into the process probably in November, where we will start to have our meetings to prepare the next transfer window. Because at this point, we will have new information about our squad. At the moment, I know the squad much more every day. I know the squad much better today than I did two, three, four weeks ago. So it will be a good opportunity next month to come together, to combine our views on the squad we have and what we need, and look ahead to the transfer window.

“We'll see what we need do, we have many games before then where we will get new information. I believe that there will be good surprises for us [from what we have already in the building]. Maybe at the minute we might say, 'this position is a bit weak', but maybe we won't think this in three weeks. So right now it is still an evolving process. We will wait, learn and then we will see [what we need to do].”

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How Chelsea win underlined Le Bris’s recruitment point

Ahead of the win over Chelsea, Le Bris was asked about whether the wide areas might be a January priority and stressed the need for patience with his current options. Chemsdine Talbi would come off the bench to score the winner, continuing his strong recent form.

"It's part of the process, especially with the wingers," Le Bris said.

"I think that this position is really hard to play because you have to defend, you have to attack. You have to sprint, to counter press and then you have to be efficient in both boxes. It's really demanding and especially in our game model and our way of playing. It just takes time. We need to support and challenge our players, but we trust them.

"At the minute it's fair to say this part of the pitch needs development but we believe these players can compete at the level. It's a question of time, they need support and they need challenging because this league is very demanding but I repeat: we trust them."

Sunderland’s defensive options were also underlined at the weekend as Lutsharel Geertruida shone on his first league start.

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