The fact that Sunderland have now gone three games without defeat suggests the back-to-basics mantra adopted by Gus Poyet after the 8-0 humiliation at Southampton is serving the Uruguayan reasonably well. But his side will surely have to show more ambition than they did here if they are to have any chance of becoming the first club this season to beat Chelsea when the clubs meet at the Stadium of Light on Saturday.
Poyet grimaced when asked whether the club he graced as a player can really go a full season unbeaten. “I think it will be hard because every single team is going to try and be the team that beats them first. Now we have our opportunity, so let’s see if we can take it,” he said, after summing up a scrappy, flawed but entertaining 90 minutes as “a typical game between teams in our position”.
“We will need to not make any mistakes, be organised and be brave on the ball so we’re not defending all the time – you need plenty of things to be very good on the day, but we’ve done it in the past, so we can do it again.”
Aware it is an unlikely prospect on this showing, he did not sound convinced. Leicester City came into the game having failed to score and been beaten in their four previous matches, but Poyet persisted with the 4-1-4-1 formation he has favoured all season. Lee Cattermole’s recall after completing yet another suspension added to the sense that Sunderland’s priority was keeping a clean sheet, and Nigel Pearson’s side, playing a 4-4-2 in which Riyad Mahrez and Jeff Schlupp gave them real width, certainly made most of the running.
It would have been harsh on City if Steven Fletcher, in a first half one-on-one created by Adam Johnson, and Johnson himself with a shot from outside the penalty area soon afterwards, had not been thwarted by fine saves from goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel.
For Sunderland to give Chelsea the amount of space and possession they allowed Leicester during the opening quarter would be to invite disaster. “After 20 minutes we brought the craziness of the game down,” said Poyet, and so they did, but José Mourinho’s side would doubtless have been out of sight by then.
Leicester, in contrast, will travel to QPR on Saturday, a side most City supporters probably have earmarked as one of the three which might finish below them. The recall of the Algeria international Mahrez, long overdue, meant that while City again failed to score, they at least created chances. However, Mahrez himself, whose shot was deflected just wide, and Matty James, who failed to beat the Sunderland goalkeeper, Costel Pantilimon, after bursting into the penalty area, failed to make the most of their best opportunities.
Pearson’s praise for Mahrez was conditional. “He always looks lively when he’s got the ball,” he said, “but today he worked exceptionally hard without it, and that’s what he needs to do to be effective in our team.” Without giving the likes of Mahrez and Anthony Knockaert some licence, however, it is very hard to see how Leicester will score the goals they need to stay up.
Man of the match Kasper Schmeichel (Leicester City)
