I am a little bemused by what I read about the Sunderland game on Saturday as I swear blind from most of the reports that Sunderland were the better team but from the game I saw the Swans were by far the better team.
There has been much written about the spirit that Sunderland showed and without a doubt they had a fight in them that seemed missing for their first two league games which resulted in defeat.
But nothing takes away from the fact for me that Sunderland were the second best team on the day and had it not been for the width of a post and the Inspector Gadget like arms of Pantillimon they would have been comfortably beaten.
I wonder what the viewpoint of the media would have been had the scoreline reflected the real state of play which is summed up by the fact that Fabianski had to make one save but his opposite number made eight.
I appreciate that Sunderland were completely overrun within their first two games but they were on Saturday as well. We had 50% more possession than they did and double the shots on goal, this was not the sign of a side that was recovering from their early season form, this was the sign of a team that will struggle for large parts of the season.
Match Stats
I am not sure what the purpose of the reporting was after Saturday's game but I do not feel that it was reflective of the game that we all watched. Even the TV coverage suggested that it was a reasonably even game which I am not sure that it was.
Think of a chance that Sunderland should have scored from and then think of the efforts that I mentioned above amongst others and you know who should have won this game.
The reporting has as well influenced some of our own fans who were critical of the performance which I don't think was justified and we have every right to go into next weekend's league clash with Manchester United believing that we can win again and with a performance like Saturday I think we genuinely will.
Well played Sunderland but even more praise for the Swans