It’s been a real roller coaster ride in 2025 to be a Sunderland supporter.
At the start of the long year, Regis Le Bris’ men dreamed of an incredible promotion to the Premier League, which would then become reality in May, thanks to a spectacular victory in the playoff final at Wembley.
Fast forward to December too, and Sunderland had much to be excited about at Christmas, with Le Bris’ underdogs currently sitting in a formidable sixth position in the league table, having dropped £162m on a plethora of new signings over the summer, to help close the tricky gap between the second tier and the elite.
£13 million of that spend has been spent on the services of Granit Xhaka, with the former Arsenal man at the heart of everything going wonderfully at the Stadium of Light so far.
Why Xhaka is becoming a Sunderland icon
Sky Sports’ Jamie Carragher even hailed him as the Premier League’s ‘signing of the season’, with Micah Richards also hailing him as a ‘warrior’ after making a combative change in the Tyne-Wear Derby.
Indeed, for just £13 million, Sunderland gained a star who played at the top of the English and German game. This is evident in his calming but authoritarian approach to debates.
The powerful number 34 has undoubtedly driven the Black Cats to become an extremely difficult team to break down post-promotion, winning 5.3 duels per game on average this season, which has seen the Premier League newcomers lose just 17 goals.
Xhaka was not at all fazed by the bright lights of Anfield in early December, even when he came up against the likes of Ryan Gravenberch, with his natural leadership instincts allowing him to block four shots and win a total of four tackles and duels to take share of the points.
With a goal and four assists also next to his name in the Championship, Sunderland must be wondering how they managed to bring Xhaka back to the Premier League, with the £13million deal seen as an outrageous masterstroke.
That said, he continues to be outclassed by a former Black Cat.
£65m star is even better than Xhaka after his departure
While 2025 will be a blockbuster year to be a Black Cats fan, 2020 was a much darker time to pledge allegiance to the Stadium of Light as the sleeping giants failed to make it out of League One.
However, although many faces from those Sunderland teams were quickly forgotten, AFC Bournemouth superstar Antoine Semenyo temporarily donned the famous red and white stripes when Third Division football was on the menu, having been loaned to Wearside from parent employers Bristol City.
Semenyo never came alive during Sunderland’s troubled spell in League One, scoring no goals and failing to register an assist in seven forgettable outings during the 2019/20 season.
But, just one season after his short-lived stint with the Black Cats, the Ghana international would finally return to the Robins, with 11 goals during the 2020/21 campaign putting him on the path to Premier League stardom, with his Cherries attacking team-mate Justin Kluivert even calling him “world class” earlier this year.
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Semenyo vs. Xhaka in 2025/26 |
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|---|---|---|
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Statistics – every 90 minutes* |
Seményo |
Xhaka |
|
Games played |
16 |
17 |
|
Goals scored |
8 |
1 |
|
Aids |
3 |
4 |
|
Ball recoveries* |
5.1 |
4.2 |
|
Total duels won* |
6.8 |
5.2 |
|
Statistics by Sofascore |
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Of course, the above comparison seems slightly odd, given that Xhaka is a midfielder, while the Liverpool-linked star is a striker in all forward positions.
Yet looking at the table above, it’s clear that Semenyo has developed into a talent that eclipses even the 34-year-old at his best at Sunderland, with the much-talked-about number 24 boasting 11 goals for the season, in 16 league appearances.
Only Bruno Fernandes and Erling Haaland are capable of contributing more to the Premier League this campaign, with Semenyo surprisingly amassing these devastating numbers for a team that is below Xhaka’s Sunderland in the table.
He’ll soon have his pick of the elite of the elite as his new destination, imagine, with £65 million looking like a reasonable fee to part with, if you’re like Liverpool, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur who want some extra stardust in attack.
The impact Xhaka has made at Sunderland in such a short space of time should not be underestimated, but as the Basel-born monster continues to end his career gracefully, Semenyo has much more to give, five years after a brief loan spell on Wearside.
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