Thats 3/3 games this season that we have bossed but have only 1 win to show for it. Don't get me wrong its still a very good start, but I feel we should be putting results to bed a bit sooner when we are on top. Bit unlucky today with Ayew hitting the post then their keepers' wonder saves, but if we can work on killing games off then I think we will be in a very good position to better last years 8th place.
Just checked the BBC stats. Looks like you guys had a pretty similar day to ourselves. I think Norwich will be fine this season. You guys know the league and what it takes to stay up.
They got the point because the ref bottled a few crucial decisions that should have gone our way, Len's should have been off the pitch, saying that though we were poor second half, and definitely 2 points dropped against a dirty poor side...........
It's only three games in so I think it's a little early to be worried about not putting teams away. Like you said, we hit the post and their keeper had a blinder - in one game. If it becomes a trend then I'll worry!
Lens should have been off, but in all fairness it was never a yellow in the first place. Probably evened it up.
dont agree they were dirty one bit.....They put in a shift that was lacking in their first two games...
They got a point because we couldn't score. If we'd have scored - yes we did come close - then the ref shouldn't come into it. But I agree with Phill that Lens should have gone and the Ref kind of blew with the wind. Sunderland are actually saying they should have had a pen for hand ball which was a stone-waller (I haven't seen it), so maybe 1-1 was fair.
If they should have been down to ten men and the ref's got it wrong then the ref has definitely "come into it".
On the bright side we can only drop one place tomorrow, but that would mean that Everton beat Citeh.........
But relying on sending offs and refereeing decisions isn't the way to win a football match. Scoring goals is. The point I'm making is that the ref becomes an irrelevance if you take your chances. We didn't. Personally I'm not unhappy with that result though. Sunderland were physical but needed to put a shift in and sometimes that happens when the crowd are baying for a little effort. Not condoning that at all but it's understandable. Pointless bitching - Sunderland and Stoke are two of the most physical sides in the Division and we get this every season. If we'd taken our chances we'd have had the last laugh but I thought we were a little lacklustre today. Sigurdsson in particular.
Of course. You can't rely on refs for anything! I posted earlier I wasn't to depressed either, it comes with the territory of being one of the better teams now. Sigurdsson is the one worry so far but he's proven quality, so either his form picks up or Monk tinkers with the formation to better suit his style of play.
The problem of course is that due to referring decisions we may have goals disallowed, which has happened already this season, and penalties not allowed, which again has happened this season. So we take our chances and the ref doesn't allow them! Sunderland maybe a physical team, but because of reffing decisions players are not penalised for playing the game as if it's rugby not football. Even some Sunderland fans were thinking that they would get players sent off because of the way they played, I happen to agree with that
It is vary rare that any team gets all their players to play their best. We played very well but we have not mastered the art of breaking down defenders when they park the bus and putting their bodies on the line.....this has to be done as a matter of urgency on the training ground because once teams see how successful it was then the lesser gifted sides will do the same.........we did the same in our early games where we played like that against the big boys and waited for an opportunity of a breakaway goal....
I think that's right too Jager. Asking players to have a go tends to result in a more physical game but if I was a Sunderland fan I'd be more than happy with the effort today after two abject performances. That's why I think 1-1 was fair.
