Sunderland were beaten comfortably by Arsenal at the Stadium of Light in Saturday’s early kick-off.
Saturday’s early kick-off saw Sunderland hosting Arsenal at the Stadium of Light looking to pick up their first win of the season.
They failed to do that, with the Gunners instead running out as comfortable winners as Alexis Sanchez and Olivier Giroud both grabbed two goals each to see their team to a 4-1 win.
Before the game, we compared two of their key men, central defenders Lamine Kone and Shkodran Mustafi to discover how they compared so far this season.
It proved to be a win for the German in that comparison as he came out on top in six of the eight areas analysed.
So how did the two compare in the game? We have taken a look at the stats to find out.
| Team | Won Tackle | Interception Won | Duel Won | Aerial Won | Poss Won Def 3rd | Ball Recoveries | Accurate Pass | Passing Accuracy | Mins Played | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lamine Koné | Sunderland | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 19 | 83% | 90 |
| Shkodran Mustafi | Arsenal | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 57 | 83% | 90 |
As it turns out it was another win for Mustafi as he won in all but one of the eight defensive stats.
He registered more won tackles, two compared to one, and more won interceptions, two compared to none than Kone did.
He also posted more defensive duels won, more aerial duels won and won the ball back more often in the defensive third.
Ball recoveries followed a similar path as he posted twice as many with a tally of six compared to Kone’s three.
His passing was also far superior as he registered more than double Kone’s number of accurate passes, although they both enjoyed an 83% passing accuracy overall.
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