The Opposition – Sunderland
The Black Cats tried and tested philosophy is well underway once again this season. For those that aren’t familiar, the previous three seasons have gone something like; 1) Start poorly, 2)Change the manager, 3)Beat Newcastle in the new man’s second game in charge, 4)stay in the Premier League. Following Sam Allardyce’s win over Newcastle last weekend, three of those four criteria have been fulfilled for a FOURTH season. It’s as remarkable as it seems ridiculous.
They boast some half decent attacking options, Jeremain Lens arrived in the summer and has impressed at times. Ola Toivonen has plenty of experience and Jermaine Defoe knows where the net is, although the former Tottenham man seems out of favour at the moment.
Prior to last week’s win against the Magpies, Sunderland had failed to win for the first 9 league games. Yet now they have finally registered 3 points, it could potentially kick start their campaign, and having won on their last 2 visits to Goodison, they may fancy themselves to make it a hat trick.
Sam Allardyce isn’t an idiot; he’ll have seen how vulnerable we were from balls into the box last weekend. Expected aerial bombardment.
What the managers say
Roberto Martinez – “The stats are there to be broken so I’d probably prefer if it was the other way round! But I don’t really think you can take too much from those stats.
“We know the strengths of this Sunderland side and they are starting to understand a new way of playing and how to get positive results.
“The reaction of having a new manager was very strong straightaway against West Brom, even though they didn’t get the result (Sunderland lost 1-0). But then, against Newcastle, anything that you could ask for in a performance – from the clean sheet, to the intensity, and scoring three goals – was there. We know we are going to be facing a team in a good moment of form.”
“We respect immensely the opposition but we need to push ourselves and get back to enjoying our football. We are looking at our own situation and we want the feeling that we enjoyed on Tuesday night to carry on into the league.
“It has been a demanding start to the season but we are looking forward to the next nine games and making sure we are as good as we can and try to replicate the good things that we have shown in these first 10 fixtures.”
Sam Allardyce – “Our job on Sunday is to make Roberto (Martinez) as miserable as we did last season.
“We can’t overshadow that we have to play better and we have to do more. If we can’t win we have to make sure we don’t lose.
“We have to produce week by week and game by game. We have to dig in and get results.
“We have to meet it head on but we have to enjoy ourselves. It can’t be all doom and gloom — it’s our job to lift the players.
“We were delighted to win the derby but we hope it gives us the confidence to go on from here. The hard work starts now.
“We may have to juggle around the team and the system due to injuries and the way Everton play.”
Team News
Seamus Coleman is a major doubt after picking up a stomach bug, whilst skipper Phil Jagielka remains side lined for the foreseeable.
Leighton Baines and Mo Besic have returned to training, but this game is likely to come too early for both.
Gareth Barry returns from suspension.
Previous Meetings
There’s only one place to start here, and that’s the 7-1 thrashing of the Black Cats at Goodison in 2007. Yakubu (x2), Cahill (x2), Johnson, Pienaar and Osman got the goals.
The Blues also thumped Sunderland 4-0 at Goodison in April 2012.
