Arnautovic adds to Black Cats’ misery
DAVID MOYES must have looked at the fixture list and red-circled this one for three of the points Sunderland will need to stay up.
Home matches against mid-table opposition, who don’t travel well, are exactly the sort of games you have to win.
So when you find yourselves 3-0 down after 34 minutes it’s a disaster.
Marko Arnautovic smashed in the first two and Peter Crouch added the third, so when Jermain Defoe scored his 12th of the season the game was already lost.
Stoke haven’t won on Wearside since 1994, but they can never have come across a poorer Sunderland XI in that time.
Moyes has excuses and the Stadium of Light fans point the finger of blame elsewhere. Ellis Short and his board are their targets.
There are 11 first- teamers unavailable to the Scot. Lamine Kone, Didier Ndong and Wahbi Khazri are all away at the Africa Cup of Nations, and eight others are injured.
Moyes knows he has no money to spend and has accepted that he may simply have to write-off the prospects of signing reinforcements in the transfer window.
“I think you’ve got to add to the squad because the numbers are down,” he said.
“We’re pretty short, but everyone who follows us knows what the situation is. Today was down to three poor individual mistakes, and that never allowed us to get going. When you go 3-0 down you need a big set of you-know-whats to keep trying to play and do things right.
SUNDERLAND:
Mannone 5; Love 6, O’Shea 6, Djilobodji 5, Van Aanholt 5; Borini 5, Rodwell 6, Denayer 5, Larsson 5; Januzaj 5; Defoe 6. Unused subs – Mika (Gk), Jones, Manquillo, Honeyman, Asoro, Maja, Embleton.
STOKE CITY:
Grant 7; Johnson 6, Shawcross 6, Martins Indi 6, Pieters 6; Whelan 7, Allen 7, Adam 7 (Afellay 68, 5); Shaqiri 8 (Ngoy 88), Crouch 7, Arnautovic 7. Unused subs – Given (Gk), Bardsley, Muniesa, Imbula, Taylor.
“If we’d have got the second goal, who knows, but the damage was done.”
For all Sunderland’s inadequacies Stoke were impressive from the off. Crouch had already come close with a header before Arnautovic gave them a 15th minute lead.
Jason Denayer lost possession on the halfway line to Xherdan Shaqiri, his diagonal pass found Arnautovic and, though his first shot was saved by Vito Mannone’s outstretched foot, it came straight back to the Austrian, and he blasted it in from a tight angle.
Arnautovic got his second eight minutes later, this time after playing one- twos with Shaqiri then with Crouch before easily beating Mannone.
Shaqiri almost wriggled through for another when Sunderland’s defenders left the ball to run out of play and it didn’t. Mannone then scrambled a long-range Shaqiri effort past his post, but his side weren’t spared for long.
Charlie Adam swung in a cross, Crouch was unmarked, and the header was simple. The goal triggered a mini-exodus of home fans with two-thirds of the game to go, but there was a response – of sorts – from the players.
Jack Rodwell hit a venomous shot straight at Lee Grant and then Defoe fastened on to a long ball and tucked his shot into the bottom corner with his usual efficiency.
But it was never going to be enough, and the home side never really looked like closing the gap further.
Fabio Borino did force a save from Grant and Rodwell should have done better than screw the ball wide when he had a clear sight of goal. The problem was that neither chance fell to Defoe.
And Stoke had several opportunities to extend their lead. Charlie Adam whipped a free- kick just past a post, Crouch missed a decent chance close in, and Arnautovic was inches away from his hat-trick when he pulled his shot from Shaqiri’s pass just wide.
It will be small consolation to Moyes that Hughes rated Stoke’s opening spell one of the best of his time at the club.
“We don’t have great record here, but the first 35 minutes was the best we’ve played away from home for a number of seasons,” he said.
“We disappointed ourselves in the FA Cup last week and needed a response.”