Newcastle 0 – 3 Sunderland: Fiery derby marked by Di Canio’s celebrations and fantastic goals

With London derbies overflowing this season, the ever fearsome Tyneside battle stood out amongst the end of the season fixtures; and it didn’t disappoint for a moment. The derby was much more crucial for the away side Sunderland as the Black Cats were poised at 17th before the game, with new manager Paolo Di Canio just settling in. Newcastle, on the other hand, were finally showing some composure in the League, but were ominously coming from a tough European fixture on Thursday.

At the end of the fiery encounter, which was flooded with yellow cards and harsh tackles, Sunderland scored 3 fantastic goals at St. James Park, which left Alan Pardew’s side at 36 points looking nervously behind their shoulders.

Di Canio’s selection was troubled by injuries and suspensions as Gardner and Wickham were ruled out for this game. Cuellar and Danny Graham were late inclusions to the side. On pape,r the Black cats looked to make up a 4-4-1-1 with Larsson and N’Diaye in the middle.

Alan Pardew’s overdose of French footballers in January makes Newcastle the biggest squad in the League, and he started a whole lot of them here. With Santon and Collocini out, Steve Taylor and Gutierrez came in at CB and LB. The 4-3-3 was completed by Gouffran, Cisse and Marveaux upfront with Sissoko, Cabaye and Tiote in the middle.

A direct look at the battle in the midfield showed an imbalance in favor of Newcastle. The duo of Larsson and N’Diaye were made to sit way too deep so as to keep the energetic Sissoko in check. Sunderland have faced many an injury crisis in this season due to lack of central midfielders, and again here Di Canio’s team selection of playing 4 (bred)-wingers: Johnson, McClean, Sessegnon and Larsson, in the midfield highlighted the problem.

Though Sunderland’s midfield behind Graham was energetic on the ball, Pardew’s simple tactic of playing Tiote deep in the defence meant that Newcastle were able to quell the danger easily.

Newcastle were showing a very familiar symptom that has characterized their season till now: tiredness after a Europa League encounter. Particularly, the likes of Cabaye and Gutierrez were way below their usual levels and the Argentine make shift left back was specifically in-fault for the goal.

Just before the goal, Di Canio was seen to signal his forward Danny Graham to press onto the deep lying Tiote. Almost instantly, a wayward pass from Gutierrez to the now covered Tiote was picked up by McClean. Sessognon then finished off the move with a clinical finish to the bottom corner.

After conceding a goal, even though numerically dominating the midfield, made Pardew change tactics quickly. He already had the energetic Debuchy bombarding down the right, and now he shifted Gouffran from the left to a much higher central position. This was followed by Sissoko being draw to the left on Sunderland’s Bardsley.

So, effectively, Newcastle shifted to a 4-4-2 with Cisse and Gouffran both upfront. There were 2 areas of battle that were initiated here. Firstly, Tiote and Cabaye were the only 2 central mids, and with Tiote sitting very deep in defence, Cabaye had to move up to the halfway line to support the front 4. This led to a huge gap being formed in between the 2, and Sessegnon was drifting into this space time and again.

The other area was on Newcastle’s right hand side where Marveaux was operating. Unlike Gouffran or Sissoko on the left, Marveux played much deeper and preferred to cut onto his left foot and drift balls to the far post. This central drift brought N’Diaye to cover him in tandem to Larsson’s checking of Cabaye.

So, now, the marauding Debuchy was fully left to Danny Rose’s responsibility and the young left back was in terrific form. Rose was able to negate all of Debuchy’s energy and rarely did the Frenchman get past the Spurs’ loanee. Even when Cisse decided to attack via Rose’s side, Rose was able to beat him for pace every single time.

Newcastle’s style was fully dependent on who Pardew preferred on the left flank. Having initially started with Gouffran and then having moved to a lopsided 4-4-2 with Sissoko on the left, Pardew now brought in Shola Ameobi upfront in place on Guffran and so shifting to a definite 4-4-2.

This change made the Magpies dominate most of the aerial balls in Sunderland’s half. Ameobi tended to stay a bit wider than Cisse, and he, along with Sissoko, were able to dominate the right side of Sunderland’s defence. This also kept Sunderland’s central of Larsson and N’Diaye in check as they were always caught marking the off-ball runs from Marveux and Cabaye.

But in spite of all of Newcastle’s domination in the air, Sunderland looked dangerous every time Sessegnon was on the ball. This was again down to the huge gap that Tiote left in front of the defence. And now, Di Canio was wily enough to instruct his wingers to pull out to the wider areas rather than cutting inside. So with McClean and Johnson staying stuck to the touchline, Larsson had a better option of finding outlets and also Newcastle’s 2 man midfield was being stretched to the limit.

Having lost Krul to injury, Pardew made his final change by bringing on the mesmerizing Ben Arfa for Cabaye. Now again Pardew shifted his wide left man by putting Ben Arfa there and shifting Sissoko to the centre. Ben Arfa was much better in this role as he finally started to deliver the much missed crosses into the box.

The entire game was decided on the freshness and speed of the players on the ball. The home side had more accomplished players on those terms, but Sunderland’s trio of wingers upfront was able to capitalize much more against a very deep Newcastle midfield. Adam Johnson and Di Canio’s late sub David Vaughan were able to score with spectacular efforts mainly due to the lack of covering of their shots by Newcaslte’s midfield.

Though all 3 of Sunderland’s goals were brilliant efforts, nothing would come close to Paolo Di Canio’s celebration for all 3 of those efforts. The controversy-etched Italian has brought in a new freshness into this Sunderland team and their chance of a mighty escape looks solid as they move ahead of Aston Villa and Stoke City.

Top of the match: Danny Rose

Flop of the match: Jonas Gutierrez