The 27-year-old, who spent last season on loan at Bayer Leverkusen, becomes Sunderland's 12th signing of the window.

Burnley and Sunderland are both interested in FC Copenhagen centre-back Gabriel Pereira, TEAMtalk understands, though the Premier League duo face obstacles.

By contrast, only two of the 18 teams with 10 or fewer points after the same number of matches have stayed up. Burnley were comfortably beaten 3-0 by Thomas Frank's Tottenham on Saturday afternoon, while Leeds - who welcome Everton to Elland Road on Monday - have their work cut out to match Sunderland's memorable opening-day triumph.

Sunderland returns to the Premier League for the first time in eight years, and is hoping to stick around this time. They moved up after defeating Sheffield United in a championship playoff final, joining Leeds and Burnley as the three clubs to secure promotion.

The Lads marked their top flight return with a stirring 3-0 victory over West Ham. A perfect start to the new season!

Craig: Championship play-off semis: Sunderland won't win. Final: they won't win. Get promoted: Sunderland are coming straight back down. Proving the naysayers wrong is what we what we love to do! More please.

The first Saturday of the Premier League season brought some incredible action, so it's time to take some bold stances