West Brom 2 - 0 SunderlandWest Bromwich Albion’s Fletcher and Brunt send Sunderland bottom
Home team scorersDarren Fletcher 30
Chris Brunt 36
With the absolute minimum of fuss, West Bromwich Albion dispatched Sunderland to strengthen their assertion to be the best of the rest in the Premier League and leave David Moyes looking ever closer at the trap door.
Two first-half volleys from the Albion stalwarts Darren Fletcher and Chris Brunt meant this match was over as a contest 10 minutes before half-time.
Sunderland, missing 12 first-team players, were willing but highly limited opponents for a side that do not give up two-goal leads easily.
Even on paper this did not look like much of a match-up. The Baggies had won five home matches on the bounce, scoring at least three goals in each.
Sunderland, meanwhile, had lost eight of their 10 away matches. Lies, damned lies they may be, but these statistics turned out to be a perfectly good indicator of what was to come.
After an even opening, in which Sunderland looked comfortable in possession and West Brom were struggling with their delivery, it all started to click for Tony Pulis’s men. At the heart of everything the Baggies did was Matt Phillips, the former QPR man not only quick and strong but composed and smart. He knew what to do each time the ball came anywhere near him.
That said, Phillips managed to get in the way of West Brom’s first clear chance as he inadvertently blocked Salomón Rondón’s close-range header after 28 minutes. Phillips made amends 60 seconds later, however.
Gaining possession in the Sunderland half, he drove at the box and fired a low shot that forced Vito Mannone into a stretching save.
Phillips ran over to take the corner and drifted it to the penalty spot. He found a West Brom head, then another, and a third, before the ball came to Fletcher on the penalty spot. The skipper took it on the chest, spun and hit a right-foot volley into the top corner. It was a goal reminiscent of another Manchester United and West Brom midfielder, Bryan Robson, and was celebrated heartily.
This in effect ruined Sunderland’s gameplan. Moyes’s men had, bravely, come to play football but now possession was dangerous; any mistake could release a West Brom counterattack and finish the game. Seven minutes after the opening goal that moment arrived when Fletcher robbed George Honeyman of possession. The ball duly sprang to Phillips who nutmegged Papy Djilobodji and drove once again at goal. His cutback came to Nacer Chadli who fired a shot against the bar from six yards. Oohs went up from the crowd but they were followed by aahs when Brunt volleyed the ball fiercely back into the net from the edge of the area.
Sunderland fans were vocal throughout the match. In the first half they sang a bastardised Bob Marley, “Don’t worry about a thing”. In the second half they sang “Are you watching Ellis Short”. Everyone knows Moyes’s squad is short – on quality but also sheer bodies. They had three untested academy players on the bench and one, in Honeyman, on the pitch. The fear remains that Short is unwilling to finance the transfers necessary to remedy the situation.
To be fair to the visitors, they did not give up. They kept calm, kept passing the ball. But their options to score were so limited – either crafting Jermain Defoe an inch of space on the edge of the box for a shot, or looking for set pieces which then generally disappointed – that genuine opportunities were few and far between.
Albion were happy to manage the match, take the sting out of play and look for Phillips when they could. The physical side of Pulis’s teams is always emphasised, but just as important is surely the mental strength that his players take into every match, confident in the plan they are being asked to execute.
As the clock ran down Pulis was able to rest key players and introduce new signing Jake Livermore. The former Spurs and Hull midfielder might have scored on his debut but leaned back when Fletcher’s cross met him on the penalty spot and fired his shot way over the bar.
Guardian
