Three things we learnt from Sunderland’s humiliation of relegation rivals Crystal Palace

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Four first-half goals shocked Crystal Palace on Saturday afternoon as relegation rivals Sunderland piled the pressure on Sam Allardyce with a heavy victory at Selhurst Park.

In a match that was the epitome of a ‘six-pointer’ at this stage in the Premier League season, Sunderland drew first blood after ten minutes when Lamine Kone reacted quickest to Sebastian Larsson’s parried free-kick to tuck into the corner.

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Sam Allardyce’s side responded well to going behind and dictated the play for the majority of the first-half, with James Tomkins heading agonisingly wide from a few yards out.

Despite Palace’s domination, Sunderland looked assured at the back and then doubled their lead against the run of play when Didier N’Dong lashed superbly into the back of the net via the post.

This sparked an extraordinary passage of play leading up to half-time, where two Jermain Defoe goals in the space of two minutes crushed Palace and sent Sunderland fans into dreamland.

Sunderland’s win wasn’t enough to lift them off the bottom of the table, but after picking up their first win in six matches they’re level on points with Palace; now two adrift of safety.

Here are three things that we learnt from the game.

Jermain Defoe is the heartbeat of this Sunderland side

When you’re in a relegation battle, there comes a time where a team needs a leader to stand up and be counted – and Sunderland have just that in the form of 34-year-old Jermain Defoe.

After arguably single-handedly keeping Sunderland within touching distance of safety so far this season with 12 goals and two assists prior to Saturday afternoon’s trip to Crystal Palace, Defoe once again stood up to the mark with a priceless double to take his tally fourteen now; for a point of comparison, that’s the same as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and more than Sergio Aguero.

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The England striker’s experience of a relegation battle – he was integral to Sunderland’s survival last season – has shown once more to be a valuable asset, and his composed and clinical nature ensured that the two chances he had, he took.

Three goals in six first-half minutes completely turned the clash on its head, with Palace’s complete dominance after going behind early on crumbling away in a mere matter of minutes – with that man Defoe once again being right in the middle of all things positive for Sunderland this season.