Sunderland do not like Mondays. With none of the past 20 matches they have played on the first evening of the working week having resulted in a win, Gus Poyet could probably do without Monday night’s televised trip to Crystal Palace.
“It’s a terrible statistic,” said Sunderland’s manager, who is said to have come close to resigning following a 5-1 Monday thrashing at Tottenham last spring. “It’s not a nice record, it’s difficult to accept and it’s not normal.”
Unfortunately “normal service” for Sunderland in the past few seasons has involved annual relegation skirmishes and they are already back in the bottom three. Tensions concerning the quality and depth of player recruitment are straining Poyet’s relationship with his board while the Uruguayan’s standing with supporters has been damaged by the recent 8-0 surrender at Southampton.
Should Sunderland stutter at Selhurst Park, cameras are likely to be trained on his face but he refuses to feel intimidated. “That would be very unlucky for the viewers,” he said. “I’d prefer my team to be showing everyone what we can do.”
As a former Brighton manager he anticipates a hot reception from his old side’s great rivals. “Palace fans don’t like me so I’ll probably get a hostile reception,” he said. “But I like that. If they’re horrible it shows they care. The problems come when nobody’s bothered.”
Last season Poyet was among those who, at times, questioned how much certain Sunderland players really cared and those queries will resurface should they extend a dismal run one win in their past 10 Premier League games.
It does not help that his class of 2014-15 is weaker than the squad which somehow pulled off last season’s great relegation escape when, remarkably, Sunderland won four and drew one of their final six matches. While the once influential Fabio Borini, Jack Colback, Marcos Alonso and Ki Sung-yueng are no longer on Wearside, Poyet’s £10m marquee summer signing from Manchester City, Jack Rodwell, is struggling.
With the previously assured Vito Mannone and Wes Brown so badly out of sorts – they are likely to be dropped Monday night – Poyet hints he has been short-changed by Lee Congerton, Sunderland’s sporting director and recruitment supremo.
“We have a smaller squad,” he said. “The key players that had been doing well last season are not here any more and, whether it’s Jack Rodwell or Adam Johnson, there are other ones who need to take more responsibility. I don’t want to be negative but you put that together and you’re in the bottom three.
“I know it’s not good and I’m disappointed to be in the bottom three, very disappointed. I don’t like it, I didn’t expect it but that’s the reality – and the table never lies. The group of players that played together at the end of last season clicked. They knew each other exactly and had something special. But now Alonso, Colback and Borini are not here.”
Poyet had hoped that the former Juventus attacking midfielder Emanuele Giaccherini, highly influential as a substitute last spring, would offer Sunderland increased invention this term but following an extremely impressive pre-season, the Italy international has spent the new campaign sidelined by an ankle injury.
With Ricardo Álvarez, another creator borrowed from Internazionale, also on the treatment table nursing knee trouble, the service to Connor Wickham and Steven Fletcher is alarmingly thin.
“This club’s been fighting relegation for four years now,” said Poyet. “My challenge is to change that.”
A November Monday night at Selhurst Park threatens to emphasise the scale of his task.
