Sunderland AFC - Winning....What’s That all About?!

It’s not often that we achieve a win, and when we do it’s very hard to try and find something positive to say about it without sounding like we’re just jumping on the band wagon! However, Sunderland fans were this weekend treated to a rare three points against fellow strugglers Aston Villa, and given our current predicament, it might have been the most important win of our entire season!

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Article by Ben Mummery

It’s very rare in any football league that a team makes leaps and bounds up the table by beating teams at the other end of the pile from them. Most advances up the league are made by beating the teams around you, which is one of many areas where Sunderland have struggled in recent campaigns.

The Black Cats went into Saturday’s fixture on a meagre twelve points and sitting nineteenth in the table, with Villa on an even more pitiful eight points and rock bottom of the division. With the Black Cats still seven points from safety, a win was a must. A draw did neither side any good whatsoever, and while the points were technically the most important offering on the table, most Sunderland fans would probably agree that this fixture meant more to our season than just pinching a win from the bottom club - it means showing we had some bottle!

If this Sunderland side had anything about it whatsoever, they had to beat Aston Villa. This was a chance to show the fans that they meant business, that they were serious about staying in the division! At very few stages this season have we looked ruthless, or like we have the “teeth” for a fight in the Premier League. This was a massive opportunity to plant our flag in the ground and say that yes, we had some guts and could beat a side when they were on the ropes.

The game started well enough with the home side setting up in a 4-3-3 formation, but the visitors grew into the game after the opening exchanges, looking comfortable on the ball and restricting Sunderland’s possession. When they did give the ball away, they recovered it quickly, although this was a much in part down to Sunderland’s panicked passing as anything else. Villa made it difficult for the home team to get any meaningful time with the ball, and pressed them into surrendering easy possession time and time again, which helped to quiet the home fans and kill some of the electric atmosphere that had buzzed around the ground at kick off.

This said, for all of the villain’s possession, they didn’t do an awful lot with the ball. Their midfield looked comfortable in possession and for all Sunderland struggled to get a hold of the ball at times, we seemed happy enough to let them tip toe it around without ever really threatening our penalty area. One chance drew a smart save from Vito Mannone, but that aside our defense looked comfortable enough against a fairly toothless attack.

Van Aanholt’s strike on 30 minutes was the first time in as long as anyone can remember that Sunderland have had a slice of luck! A 25 yard effort which to be fair, looked like it probably was on target, but should have been a comfortable save for Brad Guzan, cannoned off Richards to wrong foot the American ‘keeper and put us ahead. The lift around the ground was just what the game needed, as the fans came back to life, maybe believing that for once this might go our way!

Fabio Borini has yet to show that he is anything like close to the player he was two seasons ago, and the Italian had arguably his poorest games for Sunderland on Saturday.

Just after the hour mark, when an eight yard pass looked the simplest option, Borini opted to run the ball into traffic, got his feet tangled up and squandered possession down our left hand side leading to Villa’s equalizer, a brilliant effort from Carlos Gil to volley the ball home past the diving Vito Mannone (one for the cameras, see YouTube!). The little Italian seriously needs to up his game, that season sitting on Liverpool’s bench has done nothing for him, and it’s fair to say that at present he looks a shadow of the player we signed on loan under Di Canio.

Jermain Defoe showed his experience and class with a very sharp near post effort to put the home side back in front on 72 minutes. A great ball from Johnson found it’s way to Defoe’s right foot, as the Englishman brought it down perfectly, shifted his weight and hit it with venom towards Guzan’s near post. Close inspection revealed that the ‘keeper looked to have been miss-sighted by his center half.

Some suicidal passing in their own half killed Villa off in injury time, as Defoe pounced on a ball graciously received from a gift of a pass from Guzan, Toivonen with the assist to the little striker who hit a world class finish first time into the roof of the net.

If the opening half hour was the dictate the game, 3-1 would have flattered Sunderland. The truth however was that Aston Villa were very poor for the majority of the ninety minutes, and the Black Cats pounced to deservedly bury them and take all three points. While Sunderland were by no means fantastic, we made a poor side pay for their mistakes. It may not sound like much, but we just have not done that enough in recent seasons!

There are some promising signs in our squad, and the odd glimpse of real quality here and there, certainly enough to suggest we can keep ourselves in the division! January will be massive for Allardyce and the Sunderland board, some real ambition has to be shown, with defense the first port of call!

However the real key for Sunderland lies in their mental strength. Are the players up for a fight? Each and every game is a fixture that has to be fought for with heart and soul, not one game can be coasted through.

This crop of players needs to show their true grit, and the board need to show the fans that they mean business in the Premier League.

We’ve never asked for world beaters, we’ve never asked for a league title win or champions league football, only that we can turn up each week and enjoy the match! We want to compete each week, give our opposition a fight and go home saying we did our best.

If we can introduce a little quality to the first team this month, and our players recognize they now need to go to war from this point until the end of the season, we can do it!

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