That’s what top teams do

First touch of too many was below par. Passing was often poor. Decision-making moving forward was often not good. For all these reasons attacks broke down too frequently and invited pressure. Luckily we got out of jail.

 

We can't play well and boss every single game. The league is too competitive.

I've read a few posts from Sunderland fans saying that opposing teams only raise their games because it's them. Today proved that's not the case.

Walsall are in real danger of relegation, which suggests to me that they don't play as well as that every week.

Forget the scorelines we've had this season. I don't think our players would tell you that any game was as easy or routine as we believe.

You have to win the right to play the football. Today we didn't quite manage to do that, but we did enough to get the points.

Onto next Saturday.