I felt Sunderland deserved a point from their Wednesday home game with Liverpool ...........
I bigged up Sunderland and especially boss Sam Allardyce ahead of their last home start .............
If I owned a football club in the EPL and we were in trouble, I would be very happy to appoint Sam Allardyce as manager, when the situation and players dictate, his teams can play much better football than he is given credit for and if a team absolutely must, at any cost,avoid relegation, then he is your man. Bolton, Blackburn and Newcastle United all overachieved during hs reign and I can guarantee that the trio regretted sacking him and would be in much better shape now if they had stuck with Big Sam. He took Wanderers into the top flight and to consecutive finishes of 8th-6th-8th-7th ( in the EPL !) and that was "not good enough" fast forward eight years, parachute payments have run out, they are bottom of the Championsip and circa £180m in debt, sometimes, just be careful what you wish for !
Sunderland won none of their first eight this season, but three from seven since Sam took charge and I would be amazed if he did not keep his team in the Premier League, Allardyce is very good at targeting "must win" games and with this fixture coming after a trip to the Emirates and before away games at Chelsea and Manchester City and a visit from Liverpool to end the year, guess which fixture he will have had his greedy eyes on since taking charge ? Not for Sam the "one game at a time cliche", he will have his troops pumped and straining to get at the Hornets. His team were very unlucky to come away empty handed against the Gunners, they played with huge discipline and skill on the break and I will leave the final words on that performance to the big man "I couldn't ask for any more in terms of the way we played," I couldn't have asked for more in terms of the chances we created, but we failed to take the chances we had."It makes me wonder what would have happened if we'd had Jermain Defoe on the field. He could have had two or three goals. I'm really disappointed we haven't got anything out of the game, but I have to be satisfied with the performance."I think we've got goalscorers, we've got Steven Fletcher, we've got Duncan Watmore, we've got Jermain to come back, we just haven't taken the chances we've created."
Defoe is back today and Sam can hardly leave him out after that glowing endorsement, It is hard to pick too many holes in Watford and how they have adapted to life at the top level, but a very disciplined Crystal Palace made them look ordinary at Vicarage Road early this season and I do not doubt that the Black Cats will be sent up similarly and I suspect that Watford will not be able to play on the counter as much here, which is their forte, as they have in recent solid away showings.
They lost that 1-0, conceding early and then struggling to find a way back and that has been a key factor in how their recent games have played out, they have won two and lost four of their last six outings, they conceded early in the four defeats and went in at half time 0-0 in the two wins, pushing on late to score the decisive goals. I do not doubt for one moment that the hosts will be desperate to keep this as tight as possible, for as long as possible and with Liverpool looking a little toothless offensively right now, there must be a good chance that will happen. The visitors have failed to score in their last three road starts, including losses to Watford and Newcastle United and are without strikers Daniel Sturridge, Danny Ings and Divock Origi, despite his goal against Leicester City on Boxing Day, Christian Benteke is misfiring ( witness his late miss with the City keeper stranded upfield !), James Milner is also sidelined and goalscoring midfielder Philippe Coutinho, who has scored in all three Pool away wins this season, does not have a goal to his name in just shy of six weeks.
In terms of how recent h2h meetings have played out, it has been a similar story with Liverpool winning two of the most recent starts in the North East in which they scored early, Sunderland took four points from the two which were scoreless at the break. Hosts might we without central defender John O'Shea, but the timely return of Wes Brown should compensate, however, the really big news for them is that hugely competitive midfielder Lee Cattermole should be fit to start after 34 minutes from off the bench at Manchester City on Boxing Day. He is just the type of player Big Sam loves and his influence is obvious, when he starts Sunderland have taken 11 points fron eight starts (which is about 12th placed form ) just one from ten (!) when he doesn't. Home crowd can play their part, reduced prices mean that 44,000 + tickets had already been sold yesterday. I think that there is value in the HT 0-0 scoreline (2.75-2.90) or draw ( circa 2.25) as both teams would probably be quite happy with that.
The two did indeed go in at 0-0 at the break, but the Black Cats conceded almost the moment the second half started and despite working hard could not find a way back. They are now in big trouble, four points ahead of Villa, but seven from safety and it is really a case of three points or nothing today and that goes for both teams. To be honest, if these two play out a draw, they deserve all that they get and we should have both teams focused on nothing but the win and today has less to do with team news and is more about heart and desire for the battle and it just feels that Sunderland have shown more of each. Both are missing key players , but the suspensions to top scorer Jordan Ayew and defensive midfielder Ashley Westwood for Villa do look decisive and I will suggest ...........
Good Luck.
