BRENTFORD: PLAYER RATINGS

Sunderland made it two home wins from two in the Premier League, the first time we’ve won our first two home top flight games since 2001, by beating Brentford via some late drama. The visitors had a goal disallowed and a penalty saved before they finally had one that counted with less than fifteen minutes remaining. Just five minutes later though, we had a penalty of our own awarded and Enzo Le Fee made no mistake. We didn’t rest on our laurels after this and in the 96th minute, a Granit Xhaka cross and Wilson Isidor header gave us all three points. It did come as a bit of a shock when our second goal was given after a VAR check, he looked offside to me but that’s what the technology is there for. This is a huge boost to our survival chances.

ROBIN ROEFS: 9.5/10

Saved a penalty then made another save when it was 1-1 to keep us chasing a winner. Distribution good, one really good pinged ball late on. A very good send off for his first international window in his country’s senior squad.

TRAI HUME: 7/10

Defensively fine, except in the air, but struggled with his crosses and I thought he was giving the ball away a bit too much in the first half. Had an improved second.

NORDI MUKIELE: 8.5/10

Coped really well with their attackers, effective passing today as well. Definitely going to give Ballard a run for his money when the Northern Ireland international returns from injury.

OMAR ALDERETE: 8/10

Also did well today. Contributed going forward and defended effectively and without too many scares.

REINILDO: 7/10

He did give the penalty away but I’m not going to mark him down loads, it was a bit of a timid decision and he did really well other than that bit of misfortune. Won lots of fouls, solid defensively and aided us going forward. There was one really good bit of play where he drove into the box but, annoyingly, he took one too many turns and lost the chance to do anything with it.

HABIB DIARRA: 8/10

Had a decent chance around 70 minutes in, battled well in the middle of the park and distributed it well. Also won the penalty.

GRANIT XHAKA: 8/10

Struggled on one or two occasions but I wouldn’t say he was bullied by their players at all. That bit of quality with the cross to Isidor to win it shows why he’s going to be so important to our chances of survival.

NOAH SADIKI: 7.5/10

A bit more lowkey today than our other two midfielders but when he did contribute, it was generally quite good. Nothing too major to pick out as a negative.

CHEMSDINE TALBI: 6/10

He was perfectly fine until he got into the final third, then it was a mix of misplaced passes and taking just a second too long.

ELIEZER MAYENDA: 6/10

Made just seven touches, which is poor but he did have some good moments off of the ball and our wingers didn’t exactly shine whilst he was on the pitch. I would drop him for Isidor for our next game.

ENZO LE FEE: 8.5/10

Really came to life after we went behind and took his penalty really well, another good shift from him.

SUBS:

SIMON ADINGRA: 7/10

Definitely asked more questions than Talbi did but most of the action occurred on our left hand side.

WILSON ISIDOR: 8.5/10

Really well executed header, good work rate and could have scored sooner. Was much better physically than Mayenda was.

MARC GUIU: N/A

Some minutes in the legs but no rating because he came on so late.