A five-one battering at the home of your bitter rivals is never something to be positive about, but a 39th minute tactical re-think that day at St James’ Park may ironically prove beneficial to Steve Bruce’s Sunderland in the long-term.
Having favoured a 4-5-1 formation since the start of the season, Bruce hauled off out-of-position favourite Elmohamady and replaced the Egyptian with record-signing Asamoah Gyan, resultantly changing his side’s formation to a 4-4-2 to counter a rampant Newcastle. Since then, Gyan has never looked back.
With Darren Bent succumbing to a hamstring injury, Gyan has taken on the mantle as senior member of a Sunderland strike-pairing that sees him joined up-front by on-loan Man United youngster Danny Welbeck, and since that Tyne-Wear derby, his performances have been sensational. The subsequent three games have seen the Ghanaian as the in-form forward in the Premier League, bagging 4 goals and picking up 5 Bonus Points, a fantastic return of 27 points from his only league starts to date. Even Bent’s imminent return to action will surely do little to limit Gyan’s minutes now, with Welbeck the one briefly benched for the first half at White Hart Lane instead of the £13m signing from Rennes as Bruce began with a 4-5-1 before reverting to two up front for the second forty-five.
Sunderland have a great set of fixtures up next, which reads (EVE, wol, WHM, ful, BOL) and are currently on a run of form which sees them with just one defeat in their last eleven games. In addition, they are unbeaten at home all season, despite facing Arsenal, Man City and Man United at the Stadium of Light.
As the first team to score at Stamford Bridge in the league this season, Sunderland will, undoubtedly, be brimming with confidence coming into the weekend and Asamoah Gyan, priced at £7.2m in Fantasy Premier League (FPL) and owned by a mere 2.5% of managers, has already shown the league leaders he has the pace, power and precise finishing to put any team to the sword.
