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| Sunderland Survived EPL |
Patrick van Aanholt's opener and
Lamine Kone's brace earned Sunderland a 3-0 victory over Everton as Sam
Allardyce's side ensured their Premier League survival at a jubilant Stadium
of Light and relegated fierce rivals Newcastle United
and Norwich City.
The hosts came into Wednesday's
meeting knowing three points would be enough to secure safety and send
Newcastle down, along with Norwich, who were hosting Watford.
This victory leaves the Black Cats
four points clear of both clubs with just one round of fixtures remaining,
with Norwich's 4-2 win over Watford proving in vain for Alex Neil's men.
Buoyed by Saturday's battling 3-2
victory over Chelsea and facing a woefully out-of-form Everton side, Sunderland
sealed the points with three goals in 17 minutes either side of half-time.
Van Aanholt made the breakthrough
with a free-kick in the 38th minute that raised question marks over Joel
Robles' positioning, before Kone netted a double with two simple
close-range finishes.
It was another performance to forget
for Everton in what has proved to be a dismal end to the league season,
although there was one positive note with Gareth Barry making a Premier
League record 572nd start.
But the headlines belonged to
Sunderland, who can travel to Watford on Sunday safe in the knowledge that
another season of top-flight football is assured and will particularly relish
playing such a pivotal part in Newcastle slumping down to the
Championship.
Allardyce named an unchanged side
from the one that defeated Chelsea, but it took the hosts a while to settle
into the match.
The first effort of note did not
arrive until the 24th minute when Younes Kaboul cut inside on his right foot
and curled a superb effort narrowly wide of the far post.
Everton showed three alterations, but
the changes failed to inspire the visitors and Sunderland scored twice in the
space of four minutes shortly before the break to take a huge
stride towards survival.
After Ramiro Funes Mori brought down
Jermain Defoe 25 yards out, Van Aanholt stepped up and sent his free-kick
around the wall into an unguarded portion of the goal, with Joel
having stepped too far to his left in an attempt to anticipate the flight
of the ball.
The Everton goalkeeper then went
some way to making amends for that error by superbly tipping Defoe's header
over, but, from the resulting corner, Sunderland doubled their lead as
the visitors failed to clear and Yann M'Vila headed back into the box for
Kone to smash home a volley from close range.
Defoe saw an effort cleared off the
line by Matthew Pennington 10 minutes into the second period, but once
more Everton struggled to deal with the subsequent set-piece, Joel's
punch ricocheting off James McCarthy before running perfectly for Kone to
sweep into an empty net from two yards.
Joel's excellent reaction save
denied Defoe 11 minutes later as Sunderland threatened to run riot, although
Funes Mori did bring a first notable save out of Vito Mannone with a
back-post header.
Defoe was denied again by Joel in
the final minute, but it mattered little as Sunderland comfortably held on
before ecstatic scenes greeted the full-time whistle.
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