Sam Allardyce was not about to underestimate the damage inflicted by Sunderland’s latest bout of self-destruction. “The difference between us winning today and losing is mega,” he said. “Mega. We’ve created our own problems and put ourselves back in the mire.”
Jack Rodwell could only agree. “It’s a massive setback,” said the midfielder, whose quietly impressive performance as a substitute proved one of the few pluses for Allardyce’s side. “It’s such a massive disappointment – we can’t afford to slip back any further.”
Currently second bottom, Sunderland now contemplate an exacting festive schedule featuring trips to Chelsea and Manchester City followed by visits from Liverpool and Aston Villa. No wonder their manager lamented his team “need to be more like Watford”.
Quique Sánchez Flores’s side play Liverpool, Chelsea, Spurs and Manchester City in their next four games but unlike the Wearsiders, they can face such challenges without fear. “We’ve got 25 points so, hopefully, we can take those sides on and have great fun,” said Troy Deeney, Watford’s captain and a key influence in this win.
From the fourth minute, when the excellent Odion Ighalo beat Sebastián Coates to a cross and scored (although Allardyce was not alone in believing Coates applied the final touch), Deeney and company had real reason for optimism.
Damningly, in the past four years Sunderland have not won a league game at the Stadium of Light after falling 1-0 behind. Bolstered by a conviction that Allardyce is the man to change that narrative, almost 44,000 - a wonderful crowd on a snowy afternoon two weeks before Christmas - turned out in the hope of receiving confirmation a corner had been turned. Instead, they saw their back five – sorely missing the unwell Younès Kaboul – fail to subdue the threat posed by Ighalo and Deeney on an afternoon when the former should have registered a hat-trick.
To his credit, Allardyce acted quickly, jettisoning that five-man defence after 20 minutes. The staggered introductions of Rodwell, Adam Johnson and Jermain Defoe allied to the day’s third system change – a diamond – provoked an improvement which left Sunderland arguably unlucky not to secure a point. A late attacking onslaught saw Heurelho Gomes save brilliantly from Defoe and left Deeney limping after helping his defence out with a fabulous last-ditch tackle. “Sam’s clever, introducing change throughout the match,” said Flores. “But we’ve set high standards. The challenge is to keep playing like this.”
Allardyce’s critics could argue he should have named Rodwell in the defensive quintet, introduced Defoe earlier and dropped the ineffective Ola Toivonen but Sunderland started so badly it was hard to envisage any configuration working. “No one was at 100%,” added the home manager. “There’s an air of panic about the team. We only win when we’ve got a clean sheet. It was a reality check. We’re getting better but this still isn’t quite good enough.”
Man of the match Odion Ighalo (Watford)
