Sebastian Larsson admits Sunderland not good enough after Stoke defeat
Sunday 15 January 2017 12:38, UK
Sabastian Larsson has said Sunderland only have themselves to blame after their 3-1 defeat to Stoke City in the Premier League on Saturday.
On a day when victory would have lifted them out of the bottom three, the Black Cats handed the visitors a 3-0 lead at the Stadium of Light inside a disastrous 34 minutes.
Marko Arnautovic's two goals in the space of seven first-half minutes was enough for the Potters to kill off any real chance of a Sunderland fightback before Peter Crouch scored just 13 minutes later.
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Jermain Defoe did pull one back in the first half with his 12th goal of the season, but the Black Cats failed to kick-start a comeback and remain just a single point from safety.
Asked for his assessment, Larsson told Sunderland’s website: "Not good enough, it's as simple as that. You lose a home game when we thought we had a good chance of three points.
"We spoke again about having an opportunity to get out of the bottom three and we really slammed the door in our own faces early on and really handed Stoke the game.
"It was not good enough."
Sunderland began the game without 11 first-team players due to injury and African Nations Cup call-ups, leading to youth players Elliot Embleton, George Honeyman, Josh Maja and Joel Asoro being named among the substitute’s bench.
Their lack of depth was evident to see as manager David Moyes decided to set his side out in a 3-4-3 formation, with plenty of the home fans leaving the stadium early in the first half and towards the end of the match.
"I don't want to stand here and say it's because of injuries or because of lack of numbers," said the manager. "I'm not going to do that.
"Other people can do it, but I think my job is to support the players who are on the pitch - I always will."
The result mean Sunderland move down to 19th, while Stoke sit in ninth, two points behind West Brom.
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