Sunderland’s nemesis Christian Benteke seals victory for Liverpool
Sunderland 0 - 1 LiverpoolAway team scorers
Christian Benteke 46
The final Premier League fixture of 2015 left Liverpool seventh and Sunderland seven points adrift of safety. While Christian Benteke’s latest goal against opponents he cannot stop scoring against entitles Jürgen Klopp to think about a return to the Champions League, Sam Allardyce’s side appear entrenched in 19th position.
With only Aston Villa in a worse situation, Saturday’s game here between the bottom two threatens to be a dress rehearsal for Championship combat next season but Sunderland have only themselves to blame.
After flattering to deceive in the opening half they regressed to all too familiar bad habits during a second period when, without being anywhere near their best, Liverpool’s football might have been from another planet.
Even so, Klopp’s players began in distinctly mortal mode. In an untidy start Sebastián Coates, perhaps momentarily forgetting he was no longer an Anfield defender, gifted possession to Philippe Coutinho. The centre-half watched in alarm as Coutinho played in Roberto Firmino but the forward’s touch was heavier than you would expect of a player who cost £29m, the ball bounced awkwardly and Coates was reprieved.
Injuries to Younès Kaboul and John O’Shea dictated that Wes Brown, very much a forgotten man, returned to the home defence alongside Coates and enjoyed a reasonably quiet re-introduction to first-team life.
Admittedly it was a worrying moment when Coutinho held off Lee Cattermole before curling a long-range shot wide of the post but, at the other end, Jermain Defoe forced Simon Mignolet to tip another shot over the bar.
If that was a reasonably routine diversion, Vito Mannone did rather better to fingertip a Firmino shot on to a post after the Brazilian – suddenly looking seriously expensive – switched the ball on to his right foot and sent it swerving towards the top corner.
Liverpool dominated possession but, worryingly for Klopp, were far from in control. In contrast Allardyce would have been temporarily encouraged by the albeit fragile sense that Sunderland were, at long last, beginning to bear a few of the hallmarks traditionally associated with his teams.
Showing off some long-craved organisation and defensive resilience, Sunderland also offered sporadic threats on the break. One of the best such attacking cameos arrived when Fabio Borini aimed to jog a few memories among his former Merseyside employers by curving a shot fractionally the wrong side of a post.
Perhaps noticing Klopp’s technical area frown, Nathaniel Clyne advanced from right back to unleash a cross in Firmino’s direction. If Mannone – once again preferred to Costel Pantilimon in Sunderland’s goal – seemed pleased to palm the resultant header to safety, Allardyce was still assessing the fallout from an enforced reconfiguration of his side in the wake of Jack Rodwell’s latest injury.
Despite Rodwell’s hamstring pull, Sunderland, collectively, looked convalescent at that point but they suffered a relapse only 22 seconds into the new half and were soon en route to a fifth successive defeat.
Surrendering possession near the halfway line prefaced yet more self destruction and, sure enough, Clyne was allowed to dispatch a ball into the box which Adam Lallana rather fortuitously flicked on towards Benteke.
From around seven yards out, the centre-forward dinked it beyond Mannone and Allardyce’s game plan was reduced to tatters. The home manager is extremely unlikely to have been impressed by the ease with which Benteke – who has now scored six goals in seven Premier League games against Sunderland for Liverpool and Aston Villa – stole behind Brown and Coates. Patrick van Aanholt, too, should not be exactly delighted with his positioning.
Refusing to abandon hope, Cattermole kept endeavouring to cajole his team-mates forward but, with their final balls invariably disappointing, getting behind Klopp’s defence proved near impossible and Defoe became increasingly anonymous.
A big part of the problem was that, with Emre Can having upped his technically assured midfield game, Liverpool now had their hosts’ measure. Of equal concern to Allardyce was an injury to Coates which left him with a makeshift defence featuring three full-backs.
Although Benteke shot straight at Mannone when clean through that backline held firm on a night when Jeremain Lens, on as a substitute, was arguably lucky to be only booked for a nasty tackle on Mamadou Sakho. That challenge prompted animated exchanges between the two benches but, otherwise, there was relatively little for Klopp to get exercised about on a night when he conceded “we were not in wonderland”.
