Monsieur Salut writes: Pete Sixsmith has done with Sunderland for this season, at least as far as attending games is concerned. You will not see his seven-word verdict but Bob Chapman’s.
After the awfulness of the last home game, our Lads at least mustered defiance and occasional threat. Forget the overwhelming dominance of the stats – shots on goals, corners and so on. Arsenal were forced to fight for this win. Jordan Pickford was superb, Billy Jones stuck as well as anyone might to Alexis Sanchez and was perhaps unlucky that the Chilean scored both goals and Jermain Defoe ran and ran. Even Januzaj ran in his cameo substitute’s appearance. Effort and concentration of this sort, much more often, would have added some points to a miserable tally …
May 16 Arsenal (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 *At least we tried hard this time
May 13 Sunderland (0) 0 Swansea City (2) 2 SAFC take ineptitude to a new level
May 6 Hull City (0) 0 Sunderland (0) 2 Almost forgotten how wonderful a win feels
April 30 Sunderland (0) 0 Bournemouth (0) 1 And down we go. My ninth relegation
April 26 Middlesbrough (1) 1 Sunderland (0) 0 Two awful sides and one awful game
April 15 Sunderland (1) 2 West Ham United (1) 2 Deserved the point, Should have been three OR Khazri’s performance makes mockery of Moyes’s judgement
April 9 Sunderland (0) 0 Manchester United (1) 3 Quality from Ibramihimovic and idiocy from Pawson
April 4 Leicester (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 **Tried hard but just not good enough
April 1 Watford 1 (0) Sunderland (0) 0 **Never made must win seem can win
March 18 Sunderland (0) 0 Burnley (0) 0 Failure to take chances makes relegation certain … later Failed to take one of four chances
March 5 Sunderland (0) 0 Manchester City (1) Better performance but the same old result
Feb 25 Everton (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 Everton looked comfortable throughout. We looked doomed
Feb 11 Sunderland 0 (0) Southampton 4 (2) Second best in every facet of game
Feb 4 Crystal Palace 0 (0) Sunderland 4 (4)* Big Sam, Big Sam, what’s the score?
Jan 31 Sunderland 0 (0) Tottenham Hotspur 0 (0) Disciplined and well organised. A deserved point
Jan 21 West Bromwich Albion (2) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 * Wretched. Wretched. Wretched. Wretched. But bravo Honeyman or Sunderland torn to shreds at the Hawthorns
Jan 17 FA Cup 3rd Round Replay: Burnley (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 Now we can fully concentrate on relegation.
And a second – This team will struggle in the Championship
January 14 Sunderland (1) 1 Stoke City (3) 3 Any hopes of avoiding relegation extinguished here – that was at 3.37pm. Later: Marginally better in second half. Still awful and finally, despairingly, The bitter end has arrived. Utterly woeful
January 7 FA Cup 3rd Round: Sunderland (0) 0 Burnley (0) 0 * Poor. No revenge for that 4-1 drubbing
And Sixer’s verdict post Dean Street: Sounds a shocker. Replay to be avoided
January 2 Sunderland (1) 2 Liverpool (1) 2 Unexpected but thoroughly deserved. There is hope
December 31 Burnley (1) 4 Sunderland (0) 1 Probably the worst Sunderland display this century
December 26 Manchester United (1) 3 Sunderland (0) 1 Disappointing ending after a hard working display
December 17 Sunderland (0) 1 Watford (0) 0 Dug deep for a welcome Christmas present
December 14 Sunderland (0) 0 Chelsea (1) 1 A decent performance but not enough quality
December 10 Swansea City (0) 3 Sunderland (0) 0* Woeful performance resurrects all the old fears
December 3 Sunderland (0) 2 Leicester City (0) 1 * Superb team display; heroes all over pitch
November 26 Liverpool (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 0 * Committed, organised resistance overcome by better side
November 19 Sunderland 3 (1 ) Hull City 0 (0 ) Victor’s the boy. We have some hope
November 5 Bournemouth (1) 1 Sunderland (1) 2 *Anichebe typifies gutsy display that gives hope
October 29 Sunderland (0) 1 Arsenal (1) 4 Spectacular collapse as soon as Giroud appeared
October 26 EFL Cup 4th Round: Southampton (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 0 * More fight but still no real threat
October 22 West Ham United (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 0 A real killer. Deserved a point. Damn
October 15 Stoke City (2) 2 Sunderland (0) Another inadequate performance that offers little hope
October 1 Sunderland (0) 1 West Bromwich Albion (1) 1 Awful lot of cracks to paper over
September 24 Sunderland (1) 2 Crystal Palace (0) 3 Shambolic defending, barely of Wearside League quality
EFL Cup 3rd Round: September 21 QPR (0) 1 Sunderland (0) 2 *Paddy McNair our new Defoe? No but…
September 18: Tottenham Hotspur 1 (0) Sunderland 0 (0) Point lost thanks to traditional defensive howler
September 12 Sunderland 0 (0) Everton 3 (0) Torn apart in an abysmal second half
August 27. Southampton 1 (0) Sunderland 1 (0) Disappointing at the end, as ever here
August 24. EFL Cup 2nd Round: Sunderland 1 (0) Shrewsbury Town 0 (0) Poor game settled by an excellent goal
August 21: Sunderland 1 (0) Middlesbrough 2 (2) Another season of struggle on the cards
August 13: Man City (1) 2 Sunderland (0) 1 Held them well but tired legs told
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Two entirely different ways to lose 2 – 0.
Hasn’t that been the story of the season though Rob? Encouraging performances full of effort in games where nothing was expected, yet ultimately coming up short. Followed by zero effort, zero endeavour and zero heart in games where we’d be thinking “we can win this”.
They held Arsenal for 73 minutes, had shots on target and I reckon if they had put in similar shifts against lesser teams, things could be different. If I were David Moyes I would tell the likes of Borini… ‘You are playing for your transfer fee. The higher it gets the bigger your cut.’