Sunderland 0 - 2 SwanseaFernando Llorente heads Swansea towards safety against Sunderland
Away team scorersFernando Llorente 9
Kyle Naughton 45 +1:58
The worldwide cyber-attack that has caused so much havoc in the NHS struck the computer systems at Nissan’s Sunderland car plant yesterday. Had David Moyes’s players not been quite so abject all season it would have been all too easy to surmise it had somehow spread to the city’s football team on what swiftly turned into an excellent afternoon for Swansea City.
Goals from the impressive Fernando Llorente and Kyle Naughton left Paul Clement’s side on 38 points, level with Crystal Palace and, most importantly, four clear of 18th placed Hull who visit Selhurst Park on Sunday.
Evidently in need of a major systems reboot, Sunderland are already consigned to the Championship. Whether Moyes will remain at the helm come August remains a moot point – and particularly after an afternoon when the home support made it abundantly clear they want him gone.
Should Swansea survive they will have much to thank Gylfi Sigurdsson and Fernando Llorente for. Fittingly, that pair combined to propel them into an early lead. When Sigurdsson unleashed a deep free-kick from wide on the right, Jordan Pickford dashed off his line but he missed the ball, leaving Llorente, who had successfully dodged John O’Shea, to head into an empty net.
Across in the technical area Clement pumped the air with a celebratory fist but the tension in his body language suggested the Swansea manager’s muscles were clenched as tightly as his fingers.
Almost immediately the visiting fans’ celebrations were drowned out by chants of “We want David Moyes out” and “Are you watching Ellis Short?” from their local counterparts.
Making a rare matchday visit, Sunderland’s owner was indeed looking on from the directors’ box and cannot have enjoyed either what he was seeing or hearing inside an unusually sparsely populated stadium.
An early injury to Jason Denayer saw Darron Gibson, disliked almost as much as Moyes by sections of the crowd, booed onto the pitch. Victor Anichebe received similar jeers when, shortly afterwards, he trudged slowly off to be replaced by the infinitely more popular Wahbi Khazri.
The mood grew more mutinous once a fluent six-man passing move concluded with Swansea doubling their lead. A little earlier Kyle Naughton had done well to prevent Anichebe meeting a dangerous Fabio Borini cross but suddenly he was showing off his creative side.
After collecting a pass from Ki Sung-yueng, once a Sunderland midfielder, the advancing Naughton sent a glorious right-foot shot swerving across the helpless Pickford as it arced imperiously into the top corner. It was the right-back’s first goal since March 2011.
As Clement visibly relaxed, his Sunderland counterpart grew ever more taut faces as choruses calling for his sacking cascaded down from the stands once more. This time they were louder and prefaced a bout of wholesale booing when the half-time whistle blew.
By now no one believed Sunderland were about to reprise last weekend’s shock win at Hull, which did so much to boost survival optimism in south Wales. Short cannot have failed to have noticed that, by the start of the second period, many home fans had already left.
Sunderland felt they should have had a penalty when Sebastian Larsson’s free-kick appeared to be blocked by Sigurdsson’s hand. Much to Larsson’s disgust Andre Marriner, the referee, not only disagreed but booked the Swede for protesting. Perhaps galvanised by a sense of injustice Sunderland rallied a little and Khazri sent a volley whizzing fractionally off-target.
A subsequent Khazri free-kick saw Lukasz Fabianski finally called to arms, Swansea’s goalkeeper parrying the ball towards Billy Jones, who could only steer it wide.
Khazri’s subsequent bad foul on Sigurdsson – compounded by the Tunisian’s failed attempt to kick his prone opponent – resulted in a yellow card once a mass bout of push-and-shove had subsided.
The home fans’ anger felt somewhat more intense and Moyes headed straight down the tunnel as calls for his head erupted once again at the end. Clement, whose side have won three of their last four games, was minded to linger a little longer.
As he strode out onto the pitch to salute his players and Swansea’s 3,000 travelling supporters the sun suddenly burst through and started shining down on him.
Guardian
