Sunderland 'shambolic' against Aston Villa, says Charlie Nicholas

Sunderland are “on their knees” after being thrashed 4-0 by Aston Villa, says Charlie Nicholas.

Gus Poyet’s side went into Saturday’s encounter at the Stadium of Light with a golden opportunity to distance themselves from the drop zone but conceded four times in the first half to relegation-threatened Villa.

Sunderland supporters vented their anger at the Black Cats’ dugout and many left during a disastrous opening 45 minutes.

The result leaves Sunderland four points above the relegation places and Nicholas reckons Poyet, who described his side’s Premier League survival last season as a miracle, has a huge task on his hands to lift his squad.

“This team is on its knees,” Nicholas told Soccer Saturday. “How Poyet will be able to lift these players, who were in this battle last season, I don’t know.

“Four weeks ago, when they beat Burnley 2-0, I thought they would get a lift from Jermain Defoe scoring and kick on. It’s never materialised.

“Today was shambolic. Poyet is going to analyse it but the defensive structure was shambolic. The keeper had no chance. He was blameless.

“John O’Shea and Wes Brown, these guys played for Manchester United, they’re experienced campaigners but it was a stroll in the park for Villa.

“Their captain, Lee Cattermole, misses one more game and will be back for the Newcastle match. Boy, do they need him. But they need a lot more than that.”

Anger

After a calamitous first half, the second period got off to a bizarre start for Sunderland, when only 10 players kicked off. A limping Sebastian Larsson eventually emerged from the tunnel three minutes later, but Nicholas said the incident summed up the hosts’ afternoon.

“They came out and five minutes was gone, and Larsson was missing,” Nicholas added.

“Poyet was at the bottom of the tunnel, looking up the tunnel like, ‘Where is Seb Larsson?’ No one knows. He comes out five minutes after the kick-off limping – a bad limp. I can only look at the point of view that he was getting treatment that overran and he ends up finishing the whole match.

“Then there was one stage where there was an injury to Liam Bridcutt and Gus got all the midfield players and forwards off the pitch and started to talk to them about changing things. The change was he put Steven Fletcher closer to Defoe, they cut out the wide areas and went through the middle. It made not one bit of difference.

“The anger from the public towards the dugout was unbelievable. It was bizarre, it was madness. Everything that could go wrong for them went wrong. Everybody was against each other.”

Sunderland face away games against West Ham, Arsenal, Stoke, Everton and Chelsea in their run-in and Nicholas can’t see them gaining much from those fixtures.

“The way they’re playing just now and the mood they must be in, away to West Ham I expect nothing,” he said.

“The Newcastle game at home is their last hope, unless the three below them can’t close the gap.”