David Sullivan uses Jermain Defoe to make a point about Dimitri Payet

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West Ham co-owner says Sunderland are more dependent on Jermain Defoe than they are on Dimitri Payet.

David Sullivan has refuted suggestions the team are overly reliant on star man Dimitri Payet, insisting they have a number of key contributors.

Speaking to The Mail, Sullivan picked out Sunderland and Jermain Defoe, to illustrate a team which is dependent on the contributions of one particular player.

He said: “We are not a one-man team. You look at Sunderland and those goals from Jermain Defoe — and their survival is in his hands.

“You say Payet and, yes, he is our star, but I can say (Manuel) Lanzini, (Michail) Antonio, (Mark) Noble, (Cheikhou) Kouyate. We’ve just given Kouyate a new deal, even though he had more than four years on his last one.”

The two players are different of course. Defoe is a striker and Payet a creative midfielder, with four goals separating them this season.

The difference is that West Ham have several players following Payet’s goal tally of eight, while Defoe has eight more goals himself that the nearest Sunderland player Steven Fletcher, who has since been loaned to Marseille, and nine more than Fabio Borini.

Defoe’s goals show just what an important signing he has been for the Black Cats, and that the ex-West Ham striker has a lot more he is able to contribute in the top flight even if Sunderland suffer relegation this season.