1. This must be one of the most bizarre games Neil Warnock has ever managed.
After watching the game, it was easy to sympathise with Warnock – a rarity, perhaps – as he revealed his difficulty in understanding how they lost.
Replays showed that Fraizer Campbell clearly fouled in the box by Santiago Vergini in the opening minute but referee Phil Dowd obviously did not see it. A while later Palace could have won a penalty for a foul on Wilfried Zaha as well.
While referees can make mistakes, it is rare for a side to be on the wrong end of all key decisions and go on to lose the game against the run of play. At 1-1, Costel Pantilimon got booked for time wasting as Sunderland were clearly hoping to settle for a point.
Warnock cannot be faulted for his tactics. He tried to win the game by switching from a back-four to a back-three and adding Dwight Gayle to support Campbell up top, which was the best move for Palace given the game situation. Yet, Sunderland did not only avoid defeat, they went on to win by a two-goal margin.
2. Pantilimon can become Sunderland’s first-choice keeper if he works on few aspects of his game
Gus Poyet made a sensible decision to drop Vito Mannone from the firing line after he shipped 10 goals in just two games and made three errors that directly led to goals this season. Just like last season when Pantilimon stepped in for seven Premier League games when Joe Hart had a dip in form at Manchester City, the Romania international got his chance.
His shot-stopping and anticipation was really impressive but he needs to communicate more with the centre-backs ahead of him. The other problem that slightly dented his stellar performance was his erratic distribution. If he can improve on those two aspects then he could keep his place in goal for the Black Cats.
3. Palace’s wingers shoulder responsibility for this loss
One of the main reasons Palace lost was their wide midfielders. The Eagles kept playing the ball out wide but Yannick Bolasie and Wilfried Zaha were disappointing with their service as they sometimes over hit their crosses or they took too long to cross the ball.
These two wingers were also inaccurate with the corner kicks and set pieces. Tall players like Brede Hangeland and Mile Jedinak were ineffective when Palace won corner kicks as they never really had the delivery they needed.
Bolasie’s failure to track back also played a part in Sunderland’s second goal.
4. Patrick van Aanholt’s injury robbed the fans the best duel in the game
Sunderland’s biggest disappointment on the night was losing Van Aanholt to a shoulder injury in the first-half. He was involved in an exciting battle with Wilfried Zaha on Sunderland’s left flank.
Spurred on by the home fans, Zaha kept trying to isolate Van Aanholt then use his trickery and dribbling skills to get past the left-back. Whenever the Palace winger seemed to have skipped past Sunderland’s full-back, Van Aanholt made impressive recovery runs and strong challenges. It was a shame that the best duel in the game ended after just 37 minutes.
5. Wes Brown and John O’Shea currently form the best centre-back pairing for the Black Cats
Poyet understandably made changes to his defence after recent performances and Brown lost his place in the starting XI as a consequence.
Vergini partnered O’Shea until Van Aanholt got injured, which forced Poyet to turn back to Brown and O’Shea as a centre-back pairing.
The initial pair should have conceded a penalty inside 25 seconds, they were constantly troubled by Campbell’s pace and movement, but when Brown joined O’Shea there was a significant improvement in stability. Brown kept organising his side’s defence and they contained Palace’s threat much better.
