C Palace 0-4 SunderlandAway team scorersLamine Kone 10
Didier Ndong 43
Jermain Defoe 45 +0:16
Jermain Defoe 45 +2:07
Who saw this one coming? At the 46th time of asking, Sunderland finally won a Premier League match which their midfielder Jack Rodwell started. They did so in the most emphatic style against Crystal Palace and the midfielder, substituted with a second-half knee injury, will have enjoyed getting this giant baboon off his back in an extraordinary game at Selhurst Park. The Premier League’s bottom club subjected their former manager Sam Allardyce to an unspeakable humiliation, one to rival that which led to the end of his brief tenure as England manager last year.
After his Palace side’s victory over Bournemouth in midweek, Allardyce had declared himself more content with the goals his players hadn’t conceded than those they’d scored. One shudders to think what he made of a first half in which they charitably allowed Sunderland to score four, more than they’d managed in their previous nine away matches combined.
Palace’s players were booed off at the break, with one fan going so far as to invade the pitch and confront defender Damien Delaney before being hauled away by stewards. Following a 45-minute spell in which Palace shipped goals from Lamine Koné and Didier Ndong followed by a Jermain Defoe brace, the player was replaced with Andros Townsend for the second half.
Despite spending the thick end of £40m in the January transfer window, more than any other Premier League club, there were few new faces in the Palace starting lineup. Up against the team he left for his short stint as England manager, Allardyce named an unchanged side from that which secured his first Premier League win in charge of the south London club against Bournemouth.
At full-back, agent Patrick van Aanholt, as he may come to be known by Sunderland fans, endured a baptism of fire against the club he left just days earlier, while loanee Mamadou Sakho was on the bench. Jeffrey Schlupp was sidelined with a hamstring injury and the introduction of the much-needed deep lying Serbian midfielder Luka Milivojevic was delayed by issues related to his work permit.
Having plundered his former club Everton for new recruits to help in his bid to keep Sunderland in the Premier League, David Moyes drafted in Bryan Oviedo for an impressive debut, while his fellow former Toffees, Gibson and Joleon Lescott, made their bows from the bench.
The weekend’s most implausible rout began with a free-kick inside 10 minutes. Sebastian Larsson wafted the ball towards the far post, where Koné leaped highest to head goalwards. Under pressure from Billy Jones, Palace goalkeeper Wayne Hennessey was unable to catch the ball, which broke kindly to provide Koné with a second bite of the cherry. Still seated on his backside following his earlier aerial endeavours, the burly French defender showed good reflexes to scramble the ball home from four yards out.
Just before the 20 minute mark, Larsson was penalised for clambering all over Wilfried Zaha and could consider himself extremely fortunate not to get what would have been his second yellow card for repeated harrassment of the Palace winger. The ensuing free-kick from wide on the right found its way out to the opposite flank and James Tomkins forced the home crowd out of their seats as he got on the end of a Damien Delaney cross only to plant his firm just the wrong side of Vito Mannone’s right upright. It was as good as things got for Palace.
As the clock ticked towards the interval, a surfeit of inches meant Adnan Januzaj was unable to connect with an Oviedo cross from the left after more impressive industry from Koné allowed Oviedo to turn provider. With thoughts turning to half-time tea, Sunderland quickly forced open the floodgates. Didier Ndong was first up with a long-range effort after a mistake by Delaney gifted possession to the Sunderland midfielder. He drilled past Hennessey with a sweet left-footed effort from 25 yards. On the touchline, Allardyce was apoplectic.
Things got worse for him. In possession on the left flank, Januzaj rolled a weighted ball to Defoe as he advanced into the penalty area and without breaking stride, the Sunderland striker curled his low drive across Hennessey’s bows and into the bottom corner. With their in complete control, the pair combined again before the break. Rolling Tomkins in the penalty area as he collected Januzaj’s pass from the right, Defoe fired on the turn and made it 4-0.
Sunderland’s travelling support were left agog at their free-scoring team’s unlikely transformation. Most Palace fans, by contrast, greeted Andre Marriner’s half-time whistle with a loud chorus of disapproval.
Palace dominated the second half, but the damage was done. With their fans continuing to boo them, they laid siege to Sunderland’s goal but failed to find a breakthrough. A Tomkins free-kick from distance sailed high over the cross-bar to prompt a mass early exodus of supporters who missed subsequent attempts from Zaha, the substitute Loïc Rémy and Christian Benteke as Palace peppered the opposition goal.
With full-time approaching, Jason Denayer performed heroics to block a Jason Puncheon shot that looked goal-bound. Proof, if proof was needed that this simply wasn’t Crystal Palace’s day.
Guardian