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Black Cats Hammer home advantage

Black Cats Hammer home advantage

BBC News13 hours ago
The game I attended was at Sunderland where West Ham arrived to show the newcomers what the Premier League was all about. The Black Cats were singularly unimpressed, Graham Potter's side looked as lumpen and leggy as the opposition look sprightly and energetic.Sunderland coach Regis Le Bris fielded seven debutants from the start and his team were anything but shy and nervous on their first outing. Take out the wily Granit Xhaka and the remaining five midfielders and attackers in red and white had an average age of less than 21. Only Simon Adingra had ever played in the Premier League before.They still out-ran and out-thought West Ham. The 21-year-old Habib Diarra caught the eye with his unstoppable runs from deep in midfield but it felt like two different generations playing against each other; not to put too fine a point on it, many of the West Ham players looked old in comparison, a phrase every footballer hates to hear.Sunderland are better than I thought but even with a 3-0 opening win and the excitement around the packed stadium there is a concern. Somewhere in amongst the wild enthusiasm they know that there might just a be a fragility to the team that could be crushed by bigger and better sides than the Hammers.Sign up to read more from Pat Nevin in his Football Extra newsletter
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