Whether or not Sunderland deserved to win last Saturday is out of the picture. The Mackems won and came away with all three points – extending their run to seven wins from nine matches.
They are in fine fettle at the moment but despite coming away with a 1-0 victory, there is still a narrative to dissect from the encounter.
Oxford United manager Karl Robinson was far from pleased with the events, bewildered that his side had tasted defeat.
Speaking after the clash, he said: “They won it in 90 seconds, but we dominated for 90 minutes. I thought in every area we dominated.”
The Black Cats went ahead courtesy of a John Mousinho own goal after just three minutes, a strike that happened to be on the only goal of the game.
These comments, however, rattled some members of the Stadium of Light faithful who took to Twitter to cast their verdicts on proceedings.
Many thought it was a matter of sour grapes, citing the fact that the hosts didn’t even create much anyway.
It’s certainly easy to see how Robinson is being sour in this situation but if the shoe was on the opposite foot, Sunderland would presumably be feeling quite bitter too.
The north-east outfit may have come away with the win, but they were outgunned statistically. That being said, the difference wasn’t as big to say that Oxford United dominated as Robinson suggests.
His side had 55% of the play while amassing four more attempts at goal. Had they really been all over the Black Cats, they might have won.
However, football is all about scoring goals and winning matches – as these two fans alluded to.
Further supporters brought other matters into proceedings as one went as far as claiming Robinson needs to grow up after his comments. That was based on the fact that the law of averages suggests that every now and then your team could win despite not playing particularly well.
Another supporter merely thought he was derailing his promotion push. Oxford United currently sit in 11th position in the League One table.
Where is he from?! Can you name which obscure countries these famous players have represented?
They’re eight points behind sixth-place Portsmouth and also nine points off Sunderland. Therefore, there is clearly plenty of work for Robinson’s men to do in order to achieve Championship status next season.
Indeed, one final supporter compared the situation to Leicester City who won the Premier League title in 2015/16.
They won games by playing on the counter-attack and soaking up the pressure, playing long balls forward for players like Jamie Vardy to run onto. They averaged just 44.4% of the possession throughout their triumphant campaign but that didn’t seem to matter.
In comparison, Sunderland have registered an average of 52.3% possession in 2019/20.
Meanwhile, Sunderland are monitoring the situation of a Championship player…
