77% aerial duels won, 0 fouls conceded: The Sunderland man who can be proud of his performance against Wigan Athletic

Alex Neil guided League One outfit Sunderland to his first win under his stewardship on Saturday afternoon as they secured a surprising 3-0 victory against automatic promotion favourites Wigan Athletic at the DW Stadium.

They were winless in their previous six league games prior to this tie in Greater Manchester, not exactly the greatest omen going into this tie against a side that had only lost one third-tier match since October.

These factors pointed towards a reasonably comfortable home victory at the weekend – but it was anything but that with Bailey Wright putting the visitors 1-0 up as early as the second minute from Alex Pritchard’s free-kick.

Two penalties from Ross Stewart made the game safe for the Black Cats, though they have Wright to thank for setting them on the right course in what could potentially be a crucial result for their top-six hopes, with the Wearside outfit previously in danger of falling out of the play-off zone altogether.

However, Kosovan Arbenit Xhemajli also deserves a huge amount of credit for his display in what was his first League One appearance for the Black Cats after sustaining a severe knee injury last term.

That could have ruined the 23-year-old mentally, having to wait this long to win his first league cap, but a dominant performance from him played a huge part in keeping the likes of Will Keane, Callum Lang and Josh Magennis at bay.

Taking a deeper look into his statistics from that clash at the DW Stadium, they are as impressive as his performance was, winning 10 out of 13 (77%) of his aerial duels and being victorious in 70% of all duels, not a shabby record against someone of the physical presence of Magennis who had been accustomed to Championship football before his move to