Sunderland have had a habit of starting slow and then finishing quickly to just avoid the drop.
Arsenal’s Mohamed Elneny in action with Sunderland’s Sebastian Larsson
Sunderland midfielder Sebastian Larsson has urges his teammates to not leave turning their season around to the last minute in order to escape the threat of relegation, the Chronicle reports.
The Black Cats have had another poor start to the season having picked up just the one point from their opening six games – and surrendered a two-goal lead to Crystal Palace, with the Eagles leaving the Stadium of Light with all three points thanks to a late Christian Benteke header.
Over the past few years, Sunderland have made a habit of rallying late on in the season to avoid relegation to the Championship.
Crystal Palace’s Christian Benteke scores their third goal
Larsson wants to see an upturn in their fortunes earlier, and is quoted in the Chronicle, saying: “We have to do that earlier this season, and not wait until the last couple of months of the season.
“Let’s turn it around before Christmas and give ourselves a chance to have a decent season, regardless of what people say.
“We have been written-off before and I’m sure we have been written-off again by a lot of people – let’s prove them wrong.”
Larsson is unable to help himself at the moment as he is sidelined until the New Year following knee ligament surgery.
Sunderland manager David Moyes
He does make a pertinent point that Sunderland can’t afford to leave it late this time. There have been some very difficult fixtures for the side. They have come up against Manchester City, Tottenham and an Everton side that enjoyed an excellent start to the season.
But letting a lead slip against Southampton as well as Palace and poor display against Middlesbrough as shown the same kind of errors that cost them in games against the better sides.
David Moyes, of course, isn’t the first manager to encounter such early season difficulties as Gus Poyet, Dick Advocaat, Paulo Di Canio, Martin O’Neill, and even Sam Allardyce to some extent, have all encountered poor form earlier on.
Before the international break, Sunderland face West Bromwich Albion at the Stadium of Light, a side that is renowned for being hard to break down – something which the Black Cats could learn from.
They should be seeing the next few games as an opportunity to get points on the board given that fixtures against Stoke City and West Ham United – who are currently with Sunderland in the bottom three – have both had poor starts to the season. Positive results there means they can at least generate some kind of momentum.
Sunderland’s Jermain Defoe celebrates scoring their second goal
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