Sunderland in free fall as star man Defoe is left limping
DAVID MOYES hoped this would be the day that Sunderland woke up and got their great escape going. Instead, they are sleepwalking towards the Championship.
It’s really rather simple. If Jermain Defoe doesn’t score, then Sunderland don’t, and the 34-year-old striker did not have a single shot all game against Watford.
Sunderland have now gone just short of 500 minutes in the Premier League without a goal and are seven points from safety with nine games to go. It will take one hell of a turnaround.
Defoe also took a knock to his knee in the second half and will need to be assessed, with Moyes hoping his top goal-scorer suffered no lasting damage.
‘I don’t know about miracles but we know they happen,’ Moyes said. ‘It’s happened a couple of times recently to Sunderland.
‘But we are not playing well enough. We need to play better.
‘Sunderland have been here before. I’ve not been here before. It’s new to me but hopefully people at the club know exactly what it’s like.
‘I’ve been told we were seven points adrift with six games left before and if you can do it from that position, you can do it from any. We keep going.’
It was thanks to Jordan Pickford that the score stayed 0-0 in the first half.
Abdoulaye Doucoure’s low shot went through a sea of Sunderland bodies but the 23-year-old goalkeeper got down low to palm it wide.
Defoe went down injured early in the second half after awkwardly twisting his knee. He carried on but appeared to be limping and, with little to no service, he did not have a sniff of goal all afternoon.
Then in the 59th minute, Watford scored their winner. Miguel Britos headed home at the back post after Sunderland failed to deal with a corner.
Week by week, the nails are being hammered into Sunderland’s coffin and Championship football beckons.