Having spent much of the early part of the 2010/11 season on the bench for Paris Saint Germain, few would have expected Stéphane Sessegnon to have had the impact he has had on the Premier League after his arrival at the Stadium of Light at the end of January 2011 for £6 million. Below, Opta reveal some of the reasons for these impressive performances in statistics.
Since signing for the Black Cats, the Benin midfielder has not missed a single match for Sunderland and has started all but one of their games in all competitions (he came on as a sub at home to West Brom in April 2011), a total of 41.
It is not hard to fathom why he has been a permanent fixture in the line-up: in the Premier League alone he’s scored nine and assisted 10 goals since his debut: none of his team-mates have been involved in more than eight over the same period (Kieran Richardson).
This season his importance cannot be underestimated, only three midfielders, David Silva, Gareth Bale and Clint Dempsey, have been involved in more Premier League goals than him (13) and Bale and Silva are the only two players who have created more chances in open play in the competition (49).
Compared to Sunderland players alone, he is head and shoulders above the rest, with Nicklas Bendtner the player with the next-most chances created in open play (25), whilst his total of 64 shots attempted is 22 more than any other Black Cats player.
He can cross, but this is not a key part of his game, as he specialises instead in dribbling and laying the ball off: he has completed 49 dribbles in the Premier League this season, the third-most and 38 more than any other Black Cats player (McClean 11), whilst his passing accuracy in the final third of the pitch is 78%, significantly higher than any of his team-mates.
Given that the midfielder has either scored (six) or assisted (seven) 13 of Sunderland’s last 23 league goals, it won’t be a surprise to see Sessegnon playing a key role at the Riverside on Wednesday night.
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