Three things we learnt from Stoke City’s 3-1 victory over Sunderland

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Sunderland are left shell-shocked

David Moyes cut a forlorn figure on the edge of his technical area at the Stadium of Light. Quite what the Scotsman would have made of his side’s first-half performance probably would not be repeatable in the public domain.

Whilst Stoke City will rightly receive praise for their display, Sunderland certainly gave them a helping hand.

The Black Cats were awful in an opening forty minutes where they conceded three goals and looked completely devoid of any structure, organisation or confidence. Defensively they were shambolic, not aided by the helpless Vito Mannone in goal, whilst they continuously gave the ball away cheaply in dangerous areas. They were unrecognisable from the side that produced such a whole-hearted display against Liverpool just a fortnight ago.

Sunderland were slightly better in the second half, although they could hardly have performed any worse, but never truly looked capable of breaking down the visitors who were content to sit deep and soak up any pressure. Barring Jermain Defoe’s well-taken goal prior to half-time and Fabio Borini’s shot at the start of the second period it is difficult to recall Stoke goalkeeper Lee Grant being forced into any significant action.

It was an all-round bad day at the office for The Black Cats and David Moyes will have been given a stark reminder of how big the task of saving Sunderland from the drop will be.