Allardyce had admitted a Chelsea resurgence in Saturday’s Premier League clash immediately after Jose Mourinho’s sacking could have proved a “sad indictment” of modern player power.
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At times, M’Vila was nearly single-handedly attempting to hold Sunderland’s midfield together, with Ola Toivonen – and, to a lesser extent, Jack Rodwell – chasing shadows.
Guus Hiddink is set to be appointed as Mourinho’s successor at Stamford Bridge until the end of the season at least.
He told the Echo: “If Mourinho was still there, I still think we would have lost”.
Chelsea are by no means firing on all cylinders yet and Sunderland “made life easy” for the struggling champions, allowing them to show the “ability they’ve got.” .
Having recently parted company with manager Jose Mourinho, the Chelsea players have an added incentive to start the Christmas period in winning style.
“They were able to play it from left-to-right and through the middle of us, and it’s no excuse that their manager had changed”.
If the visitors are to heap further misery on Chelsea then they may strike late given that 64.7 per cent of their league goals have been scored after half-time: the joint highest share.
Though too little too late, Allardyce insisted his side did improve during the last half hour, following several personnel and formational alterations.
Tottenham beat Southampton 2-0 at St. Mary’s stadium to move fourth, above United.
“But coming back from 3-0 down, even at 3-1, it’s a big task, even though we had chances to score more goals”.
It is rather ironic that Oscar had his best game of the season – or even longer? – in the first match of the Second Post-Mourinho Era.
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“But I have to be honest, I saw so many poor performances in the first half that I could have changed nearly all the outfield players”.
