Régis Le Bris looked concerned. “We can feel the danger,” said Sunderland’s manager last week as he suggested a Wolves renaissance could be just round the corner. If so, that Old Gold revival suffered a damaging delay on an afternoon when Le Bris’s fears proved groundless as Sunderland registered their fourth Premier League win in eight games since promotion. It leaves them with 14 points and surely set fair for survival.
The horizon seems considerably cloudier for a Wolves team without a win and stuck to the bottom of the table on just two points. If their head coach, Vítor Pereira, did not sense peril before kick-off his security of tenure now appears deep in the danger zone.
Pereira spent much of the match shaking his head as Dan Ballard’s marking reduced his key striker Jørgen Strand Larsen to near anonymity, Sunderland’s Nordi Mukiele dictated play from right-back and Enzo Le Fée’s intelligence in a largely left-sided attacking midfield role destabilised a visiting ensemble that has evidently forgotten how to test a goalkeeper.
“The first half was technically poor,” said Pereira. “I can’t remember one good moment from us. In the second half we corrected things, played 30 minutes of high-quality football and created three or four chances, but in the final 15 minutes we stopped playing, used the long ball and that’s not our game. Sunderland took their chances, we missed ours and in the Premier League you cannot lose these moments.
“I understand why the fans are angry, I understand why they’re disappointed. But this is a moment for the supporters to believe in our players, in our team. This is football; now we must keep working, start scoring and start winning.”
Maybe he should ask Le Bris for some tips. “It was an important win,” said Sunderland’s manager. “It was important to react well after losing at Manchester United last week. It’s a long journey, and a tough journey ahead, but I’m pleased with our mindset and our togetherness.”
Such qualities were evident from the start when a superb, early left-foot finish from a tight angle by Wilson Isidor left the Wolves goalkeeper, Sam Johnstone, picking the ball out of the back of his net.
On that occasion an offside flag denied the Sunderland striker a goal, but Isidor quickly had cause to congratulate Mukiele after a slick move instigated by Le Fée’s defence-confounding swivel and stellar reverse pass prefaced a one-two involving Trai Hume and Mukiele.
It all concluded with the former Paris Saint-Germain defender’s accomplished right-foot finish whizzing between Johnstone’s legs. “Nordi’s an important player for us,” said Le Bris.
Wolves have failed to keep a clean sheet in the Premier League this season and their latest concession merely served to confirm the fragility of a backline that had looked vulnerable every time Mukiele directed one of his mighty long throws into their area.
One of those Mukiele missiles very nearly prefaced Sunderland doubling their advantage, but Hume headed against a post after meeting Ballard’s flick-on. Ballard might have scored himself had he not headed Granit Xhaka’s corner straight at Johnstone after out-leaping a visiting defence repeatedly destabilised by Le Fée’s left-wing manoeuvres.
Despite the odd loose pass from a dominant, yet sometimes slightly slapdash, Sunderland, Wolves left Robin Roefs virtually unemployed for protracted periods.
Sunderland’s goalkeeper had still not been tested properly when, at the outset of the second half, João Gomes and then Rodrigo Gomes dragged shots wide from an inviting positions. If Ballard continued to do a good job in subduing Strand Larsen, the striker’s teammates upped their game in a second period featuring increasing edginess among Sunderland’s support.
Not that Wolves were able to justify such anxiety. Indeed, it was not until the 70th minute that they directed their first shot on target when Roefs’ fine save kept out Marshall Munetsi’s volley.
If that prompted relief, stoppage time rapture was assured when Ladislav Krejci’s horribly sliced clearance in the face of Chemsdine Talbi’s attempted cross ended up in the back of his own net after flying beyond a wrongfooted Johnstone.
