I don’t think you will find too many Sunderland supporters who are disappointed with the performance and result that we got from our team at Crystal Palace on Saturday.
Palace have not lost in 15 games now, and it shows why when you see how well organised they are, both in and out of possession. They are going to do well this season, despite losing an important player in Eberechi Eze, and the fact that Sunderland gave as good as they got gives me immense confidence in where we appear to be heading.
There was a quote from Granit Xhaka doing the rounds on the club’s social media the day before the game that I just can’t get out of my head. “Back at it tomorrow. No excuses. We go for the win.” Of course, we did not win, but that comment has really stuck with me because it reminded me that we have got a player in Xhaka who has only ever known what it feels like to win.
Indeed, he said upon arriving at Sunderland that he felt it necessary to experience struggle in his playing career if he was going to go on and become a coach one day, and that the standards had been raised considerably because of his presence in the side.
Much has been made about the relegations suffered by the past six promoted teams, but Sunderland do not seem to care about all of that and are not acting anything like a newly promoted team. At Palace, we looked unbelievably organised, as we always have done under Regis Le Bris, but with a group of players who are not here to mess around.
There will not be many teams that go to Selhurst Park this season and get a clean sheet, never mind a draw, so I am delighted with how we played and how we achieved the result.
Palace had the better chances, but we invested in top defensive players to give ourselves the best chance of achieving results like this on the road. Nordi Mukiele looked every bit the quality of player you expect when you sign someone from Paris St-Germain, while Robin Roefs was imperious in goal and is already vindicating the decision to spend big money to bring him here. He is magnificent, and it scares me that he is this good after just one season of senior football – how good is he going to be in a few years from now?
It is all good stuff. To be sat with seven points from four games, with two clean sheets to boot, is magnificent and is exactly the sort of start to life we needed in the Premier League to give ourselves a platform to kick on from here.
