Sunderland climbed out of the Premier League’s bottom three and applied heavy pressure on the teams fighting for survival around them with a gritty 2-0 victory against Everton yesterday.
Danny Graham put Sunderland ahead after 54 minutes when the striker was in the right place to deflect Jordi Gomez’s shot past Tim Howard and record his first goal for the club he joined more than two years ago.
Everton pushed for an equalizer, but Sunderland made sure of the three points when Jermain Defoe turned a deflected shot from Adam Johnson with five minutes remaining.
Photo: Reuters
Sunderland climbed to 14th on 36 points from 35 matches and have a game in hand on all the teams around them. Everton remained 11th with 44 points from 36 games.
Meanwhile, Liverpool must reluctantly subject themselves to the afterglow of Chelsea’s Premier League title triumph today as they seek to keep their slim hopes of Champions League qualification flickering.
A year ago, the teams were vying for the title and despite Chelsea puncturing Liverpool’s late-season momentum with a 2-0 win at Anfield, it was Brendan Rodgers’ side who finished higher on the table.
Now, it is Chelsea who are champions, after last weekend’s 1-0 win over Crystal Palace, with Liverpool a massive 22 points behind them and in the unfortunate position of having to give their rivals a guard of honor.
Rodgers’ men entered the weekend four points adrift of Manchester United, who occupy the fourth and final Champions League qualifying berth ahead of their trip to play Crystal Palace yesterday.
However, Rodgers remains optimistic.
“We’re going into the game at the weekend looking to win,” the Liverpool manager said. “Chelsea are obviously deserved champions. They’ve been the best team, but all we can do is control the last three games, look to win those and see where we end up. I’m purely focused on the game.”
“I congratulated [Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho],” he said. “They’re the deserving champions and to win it with a few games to go is obviously pleasing for him, but it doesn’t take away from what we’re looking to do and we want to finish the season strong.”
Rodgers will take encouragement from his side’s performance on their previous visit to Stamford Bridge, when Chelsea needed an extra-time header from Branislav Ivanovic to secure victory in the League Cup semi-finals.
Mourinho might also elect to rotate his squad, but he has set his players the target of finishing the campaign on 92 points by winning their final three games.
“We want to win our matches,” said Mourinho, whose side are unbeaten in their past seven encounters with Liverpool.
“We have three difficult games. We don’t need to win, but we want to try to win points,” he said.
“For many months we had no defeats, but I can’t do anything,” he said. “I can just enjoy the title, which is the most important thing.”
Today’s game will be the final time Mourinho comes up against Steven Gerrard in a Liverpool shirt before the Anfield club’s captain leaves for the Los Angeles Galaxy at the end of the season.
Gerrard’s slip against Chelsea 12 months ago sparked Liverpool’s finishing-straight collapse and the 34-year-old has endured a frustrating campaign, compounded by the recent loss to Aston Villa in the FA Cup semi-finals.
However, Mourinho paid a handsome tribute to the former England skipper in his pre-match media conference, describing him as “one of my favorite enemies” and revealing that he had tried to sign him for Chelsea, Inter and Real Madrid.
Gerrard has started three of Liverpool’s past four matches and will hope to do so again as he gears up for an emotional Anfield send-off against Palace next weekend.
Rodgers revealed on Friday that Daniel Sturridge will be out until September after undergoing hip surgery, but fellow striker Mario Balotelli could make his return against Chelsea following a foot injury.
Midfielder Lucas Leiva is in contention to start, but center-back Mamadou Sakho remains sidelined with a hamstring problem.
Mourinho must once again decide whether to take a risk with top scorer Diego Costa’s troublesome hamstrings, which have kept the Spain international out of action for more than a month.
“Diego wants to play, but I will protect him all the way,” Mourinho said. “We need to find a balance between the risk and the desire.”
Playmaker Oscar will definitely miss out due to a thigh problem that has ruled him out of Brazil’s Copa America campaign.
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