With a 4-1 loss at the hands of Arsenal in their last game, Sunderland joined Derby County in the record books for making the worst start to a Premier League season ever. The Black Cats lie rock bottom of the league table with 2 points from their first 10 games.
The side managed by David Moyes has been condemned to 5 losses in their last 6 games with just 7 goals scored which is the lowest in the league and 20 conceded. The team looks to be completely out of sorts and heavily reliant on 34-year-old Jermaine Defoe in the attacking department. While defensively it has been an absolute struggle.
Since the departure of Sam Allardyce, the defensive structure seems to have fallen down with players like Lamine Kone not being able to replicate the form of last season which helped the team survive the drop. David Moyes, who took charge at the start of the season, perfectly knew what he was walking into but within a few weeks, the Scotsman was also surprised with the lack of quality at his disposal when he stated that he never had such poor players in his managerial career.
The signs were ominous after a bad transfer window and choosing not to sign midfielder Yann M’Vila now looks to be a mistake which will cost the club a hell lot more than the £8.5m demanded by Rubin Kazan in the summer.
The Frenchman was one of the key performers under big Sam in the previous season appearing 37 times in the Premier League scoring once and assisting 4 times. Performing the role of a box to box midfielder having heavy defensive duties, the midfielder made 3 clearances, 2.7 successful tackles and 2.3 interceptions per game to provide the solidity needed desperately by the team.
This season, David Moyes has lacked the presence of a potent midfield destroyer who can do that whilst providing the forward drive from deep positions. Despite missing out on the player in the summer, M’Vila is due to arrive at the Stadium of Light as a free agent in January, the availability of the player on a free is what restricted Sunderland for not paying the extorting sum demanded by Rubin Kazan in the summer.
With the January window still over a month away, it now seems that Sunderland has left it too late as potential arrivals would not be able to help the club escape the clutches of relegation this time around. If that happens then the club would forever rue their reluctance to spend £8.5m in the summer as dropping out of the Premier League with the new TV deal in place equates to a financial disaster.
