Sunderland's Luke O'Nien on the training pitch at the Academy of Light (Image: Annabel Lee-Ellis/PA Wire)
Sunderland's Luke O'Nien on the training pitch at the Academy of Light
LUKE O’NIEN says there has to be ‘collective responsibility’ for Sunderland’s disappointing start to the season – but the stand-in skipper feels Sunday’s spirited victory over Chelsea proves the strength of the desire to turn things around.
Sunderland headed into their weekend meeting with the Blues rooted to the foot of the Premier League table after winning just one of their opening nine league matches.
The dreadful run, allied to a bitterly disappointing midweek European defeat to Dinamo Zagreb, had piled pressure on head coach Regis Le Bris, with the two-week international break offering the opportunity for the Sunderland hierarchy to take drastic action if they felt a change was required.
Instead, having backed their head coach in a series of interviews, Sunderland’s players delivered their best performance of the season so far as they beat Chelsea 1-0 to claim a second league win, climbed off bottom position and transformed the mood that had been building up around the club for much of the previous fortnight.
“As players, we’re under pressure,” said O’Nien, who took over the captain’s armband after Granit Xhaka was forced off in the opening five minutes of Sunday’s game. “Performance comes down to every single person, and everybody feels that, and I think it's rightly so.
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"We’re out there to perform and we haven't, we haven't got the points we want. The gaffer is the face of that, but equally as players, myself, senior players, the younger players, we all take responsibility for that.
“It’s a team effort when we go out there. I think the crowd wanted to see what we delivered. We all wanted it, and I’m very proud of the boys and us for that.”
Both on and off the pitch, Sunday felt like a return to everything Sunderland were doing so well as they qualified for Europe last season. There was a snap and intensity to the Black Cats’ play, as well as a return of the aggression and physicality that characterised so many of Sunderland’s performances last term, and sensing the shift in mood on the pitch, the Stadium of Light crowd also played their part in the win, lifting the home side’s players while barracking their opponents.
“The fans were excellent,” said O’Nien. “We’ve got to give them the performance for them to get behind, and I think we did that from the very first couple of minutes, the way we pressed, the way we hunted them down, and the crowd responded.
“We’re well aware of what the fans want to see. When it’s not going well, we hold our hands up. There’s never a lack of effort or trying, sometimes it doesn't click, but we’ve been working really hard behind the scenes and I think you saw that.”
The sense of collective responsibility even extended to Xhaka once he had been forced off after suffering a calf injury in the final few seconds of the pre-match warm-up.
The midfielder tried to play despite experiencing discomfort in his calf, but was signalling to the bench within the first minute that things were not right.
Xhaka went straight down the tunnel for treatment after coming off the field, but was actively involved in the half-time discussions, passing on advice and information and attempting to help guide his team-mates through the second half of the game.
“Even when Granit came off in the first couple of minutes, he’s in the changing rooms, sitting next to me giving tactics,” said O’Nien. “That’s the captaincy that people can't see.
“They won’t see behind the scenes, but that’s what you want from your skipper. Even though he’s not involved, he’s right next to me, saying what he sees. He’s done that from the very get-go.”
O’Nien accepts the pressure was mounting after bitterly-disappointing displays against Bournemouth and Coventry City in particular, but the 31-year-old never doubted the strength of the determination within the dressing room to turn things around.
“Even when you lose, it's about how do you show up the next day? What do you then do? And I think the reaction over the last couple of weeks, even last week when we got that 3-1 defeat [at Coventry], has been good,” said the centre-half.
“It's how do you respond? How do you keep showing up? If you keep showing up the right way, then you give yourself opportunities like this. I’m just very proud of the boys.”