It's highly unlikely that new manager Gus Poyet is going to make anything worse for Sunderland, but after one game, it's obvious that he has a ton of work to do if he wants to keep them in the Premier League. While they did well to keep a clean sheet against Swansea in the first half, they were absolutely slaughtered in the second, eventually losing 4-0.
Swansea City vs. Sunderland: Final score 4-0, Gus Poyet has a lot of work to do
Gus Poyet isn’t facing an easy task in trying to keep Sunderland in the Premier League. They were absolutely slaughtered by Swansea on his debut.
The first half was rather uneventful, with Swansea having the better chances to score. Jonathan De Guzman hit a free kick just wide in the 32nd minute, and looked like he had Keiren Westwood beat if his shot had been on target. In the 43rd minute, Valentin Roberge took down Michu when he was in on goal and looked concerned that he could have drawn a red card, but the referee only showed yellow.
Sunderland started strongly in the second half, with Emanuele Giaccherini setting up Phillip Bardsley for a shot inside the box, but he took a defender's shot and missed badly when he should have scored. That missed chance would come back to haunt Sunderland, who were completely sunk before the hour mark.
Swansea's opener came off a corner, with Angel Rangel heading towards the target, though Bardsley got the last touch and was credited with an own goal. One minute later, De Guzman sunk the Black Cats with a brilliant curled strike from 25 yards that looped over the fingers of Westwood, giving the Sunderland keeper no chance to make a save and his side a 2-0 lead.
In the 63rd minute, Craig Gardner took down Leon Britton in the box and Wilfried Bony converted the resulting penalty to take away any chance of a comeback for Sunderland. Chico Flores added the exclamation point in the 80th minute, heading in a corner by De Guzman.
Swansea: Vorm, Davies (Taylor 51’), Chico, Amat, Rangel, Britton, De Guzman, Dyer, Michu, Routledge (Pozuelo 81’), Bony (Vazquez 75’)
Goals: Bardsley (OG 57’) De Guzman (58’), Bony (Penalty 64’), Chico (80’)
Sunderland: Westwood, Celustka, O’Shea, Roberge, Bardsley, Cattermole, Gardner, Larsson, Johnson (Borini 61’), Fletcher (Altidore 82’), Giaccherini (Colback 61’)
Goals: None
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