Our household will be a
happy one this Christmas. The family will celebrate together. The kids will
play. Spirits and ale will flow. The mince pies are already being consumed,
and, if the cat leaves it alone, the tree will stand proudly decorated in the living
room. It'll also be a happy place to be, because Sunderland have delivered us a
very welcome and greatly needed festive three points. That is all I wanted in
my Christmas stocking this year. I can now head into the seasonal merriment a
very contented and cheerful man.
The victory over Watford was another hard earned one. The Hornets set up to be compact, defensively sound, and looked to supply Deeney and Ighalo in attack. Sunderland on the other hand introduced Donald Love at Right-Back, and welcomed back Victor Anichebe and Didier N'Dong from injury and suspension respectively.
The game was very much even in the opening 45, Jordan Pickford
pulling off one top drawer save in particular from an Amrabat volley. This lad
is improving with each passing game, and I'm quickly running out of
superlatives to describe him. We are at risk of expecting his performances to
be of such a high standard every week, that we are almost being spoilt. The
club must keep hold of young Jordan during the upcoming January transfer
window, he is that important to our cause. Defoe looked lively and having
Anichebe back was a huge plus point.
You got the impression that this was to be the type of game
where a mistake or a moment of magic would be enough to break the deadlock, and
just after half time, Adnan Januzaj provided just that. The young Belgian's
brilliant turn and ball into Defoe resulted in Van Aanholt managing to slot
home the ball at the second attempt after making his way into the area from the
left. Bizarrely, Sunderland only have three players with a league goal to their
name this season, something that as the weeks go by and the niggling injuries
worsen over the busy festive calendar, will have to change. For now though, we
will take wins however they come.
Januzaj's second half performance was much better. He showed
some nice touches, brought players into play and always looked to turn and
attack. If Sunderland and David Moyes can get that out of him on a regular
basis, then we'll have a real asset on our hands for the remainder of the
season. Love played well at Right-back, with Djilobodji and Kone once again
very solid defensively. It was a tough call when trying to pick a MOTM, but I'm
going to go for Jason Denayer. He's played at Right and Left-Back, Centre-Back
and in Midfield this season, even getting forward on occasion. He's played in
the middle of the park recently, looking a lot more settled and growing into
the role. He looked very assured yesterday, and got better as the game wore on.
For me he shades it from Papy Djilobodji who was also excellent. Let's hope
Senegal have completely forgotten about him in January eh?
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