The defeat to Bournemouth marked Sunderland’s fourth consecutive Premier League loss, placing them firmly in the relegation zone.
It’s quite the contrast to last season, when Sunderland secured Europa League qualification thanks to a 2-1 win over Chelsea on the final day.
Speaking to Sky Sports after the game, Mukiele, one of Sunderland’s best performers in 2025-26, was remarkably frank.
"This game is just what we are looking (like) from the beginning of the season, to be honest with you. We are not good enough. If we deserve to be where we are today, definitely. Why? I don't know,” he said.
“Maybe because we became arrogant, this is what I think. It's just the beginning, football is like this.
"You can accept and just stand up and go back to work. If I believe we can go back to the top again, yeah, I believe about this.
“It depends about what we really want and this starts in training because we don't do enough and after you can see it on the pitch.
“You cannot lie about football and today, I don't want to say we didn't want to win this game, but it didn't look like we want something.
“It is difficult at the moment., I believe if you work hard in training the game is going to be the same but today was not a good game for us and we just have to fight to be better for the next.
“We struggled everywhere. We don't score enough; we concede so much. If I have to compare last season we didn't concede as much as we did last season.
“I don't want to say it's attack or defence, it's all of us, we are not good to all the part. We have to be back in our basics how we were last season.
"Maybe we should stop to watch back last season because this is a new season, and everyone is better and we have to be better because if you are not in a level in this league we will just stay where we are.
“I don't think Sunderland deserve it as fans and as a city, so we need to do better and we have to work and be much professional and be on a level every week, not just one weekend, every weekend.
“If we don't, we will stay where we are because today to be honest with you we definitely deserve to be where we are and we know what we have to do to be out of this position because I don't like this position.
“I hate those positions so I will not sleep well because I don't like to lose anyways and I don't like to be in this position where we are. We have to fight, all of us from up and down we have to fight and try to find the solution to be out of this position."