Why Everton draw was a good point for Sunderland
Sunderland have taken eight points from losing positions so far this season
Perhaps one of the biggest compliments you can pay Sunderland this season is that Regis Le Bris has got them playing like Chumbawamba. At various points over the course of the opening 10 matches of this Premier League campaign, the Black Cats have been knocked down, and on nearly every occasion, they have, stubbornly, got up again.
Monday night’s 1-1 draw against Everton was maybe, in some respects, the most drastic example of this innate resilience yet. The home side may not have come away with all three points at the Stadium of Light, but given how thoroughly shoddy they looked for the opening half hour, their subsequent revival, equaliser, and utter dominance of the latter stages verged on the minorly miraculous.
This was, to begin with, probably the worst display that Sunderland have put in since their fairy tale promotion back to the top flight, and yet, come the final whistle, you suspect Le Bris and his players were wondering how they hadn’t wrapped up a victory that would have taken them up to second in the table.
There are caveats, of course. Had they been facing almost any other side in the division - rather than an Everton team who, at times, seem allergic to putting the ball in the back of the net - the Black Cats may well have been dead and buried before they even so much as laid a glove on their visitors. And then, right at the end of a second half during which they had chewed the Toffees into a malleable goop, they were fortunate not to throw it all away when they almost fell victim to that rarest of cosmic phenomena - a misplaced Granit Xhaka pass.
But by and large, after a horror show start, Sunderland deserve to be commended for the manner in which they hung in, and then played their way into, a contest which had threatened to slip away from them entirely. It is a propensity which is becoming habitual.
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So far this season, Sunderland have earned eight of their 18 points, some 44%, from losing positions - the most across the entire breadth of the Premier League. Wins against Brentford and Chelsea - both courtesy of stoppage time sucker punches - and draws against Aston Villa, while reduced to 10 men, and the aforementioned Everton, have not only hugely bolstered the club’s early survival hopes, but also speak to a relentlessness that has served them well throughout Le Bris’ tenure. Rarely has a slogan been as fitting or as long-lasting as that beloved “‘Til the End”.
In other words, the spirit and belief of this Sunderland cohort - especially for a newly promoted side - is nothing short of remarkable, and there is an awful lot of encouragement to be taken from the fact that even when they do fall behind, they do not crumble. If the end goal remains avoiding relegation by any means necessary, then it is a trait that will go a long way towards keeping that points column ticking over and the finish line edging ever closer.
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