Sunderland claimed a 1-0 home win against Premier League rivals Tottenham Hotspur on Sunday afternoon.
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One Sunderland star has been praised by a former Black Cats striker for showing a ‘really positive’ mindset that helped Regis Le Bris’ side increase Tottenham Hotspur’s relegation concerns.
The North London outfit arrived at the Stadium of Light looking to mark Roberto de Zerbi’s first game in charge with a win that would have lifted them out of the Premier League relegation zone. Although there were some positive moments for the visitors, they remain in the bottom three after a Nordi Mukiele goal separated the two sides when the full-time whistle was blown.
The main talking point of the first-half came when a decision to award a penalty to Spurs was overturned after a VAR review as Black Cats defender Omar Alderete was ruled to have got a foot on the ball before visitors forward Randal Kolo Muani went to ground. Sunderland increased the tempo after the break and the decisive moment arrived just after the hour-mark as Mukiele charged towards the Spurs area before unleashing a shot that took a wicked deflection off Micky van der Ven and wrong-footed keeper Antonin Kinsky before nestling inside the far post.
One interested onlooker was former Sunderland and Spurs striker Darren Bent as he formed part of Sky Sports’ team of pundits for the fixture - and he praised match-winner Mukiele for his ‘really positive’ decision to break forward that handed his side all three points that boosted his side’s chances of challenging for a European place and pushed their visitors further into relegation trouble.
He told Sky Sports: “It was (a big deflection) but it’s really positive as he drives forward. When you’re at the bottom, everything goes against you. Mukiele does really well, he keeps driving, keeps going, has a shot. Kinsky probably makes a comfortable save in the end but when you’re down there, the deflection just wrong foots him the other way and it goes in the corner so Sunderland pick up all three points.”