article_snippet: The Black Cats have managed only 23 goals in The Black Cats 28 Barclays Premier League fixtures to date this season, a return which has left The Black Cats perched perilously close to the relegation zone as this season reaches crunch-point.
article_snippet: Perhaps even more worrying is the fact that Gus Poyet's pool of frontmen has contributed just nine of those goals, a record Wickham knows simply has to improve if The Black Cats are to avoid a second successive scramble for top-flight survival.
article_snippet: Connor Wickham, who has scored just three league goals this season, says Sunderland must do better .
article_snippet: Sunderland face Aston Villa - the only Premier League club to have scored fewer goals with just 15 to date - at the Stadium of Light on Saturday with three points crucial for both sides.
article_snippet: Villa, who ended a run of seven league defeats on the trot with a 2-1 home victory over derby rivals West Brom on March 3, currently sit three points clear of the bottom three with the bottom three hosts a point better off.
highlights_snippet: Barclays Premier League strugglers have scored just 23 goals in 28 games .
  
highlights_snippet: Only nine of those goals have been scored by Sunderland's strikers .
  
highlights_snippet: Sunderland face Aston Villa at Stadium of Light in their next game .
  
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