Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce has set his team a points target for their upcoming run of games. Allardyce, or ‘Big Sam’, was brought in to keep the Black Cats from relegation this season, and he feels this points target will go some way to doing that.
The Sunderland Echo claim that Sam wants his side to pick up nine points from their next eight games, in which time they will face: Chelsea (A), Manchester City (A), Liverpool (H), Aston Villa (H), Swansea (A), Spurs (A), Bournemouth (H) and Manchester City again (H) – as well as playing Arsenal in the FA Cup.
For his first eight games in charge, Allardyce set a target of twelve points picked up, but the Black Cats fell short, and the boss feels like that may have hampered their survival chances:
“We’ve got to get more points from the next eight games now.” “If we’d have got 12 points from eight, it would have been a miraculous total coming in from day one”“But we’ve passed up that opportunity and it’s made the next group of eight games – with the fixtures in it – so much more difficult.”
The Wearside boys are currently 19th in the Premier League, with twelve points. However, a win against managerless Chelsea on Saturday afternoon would take them out of the relegation zone (and above The Blues!), as long as also managerless Swansea don’t win their game against West Ham United on Sunday afternoon.
