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Habib Diarra and Chemsdine Talbi sat behind opposing dugouts during last month’s acrimonious Africa Cup of Nations final as Senegal beat Morocco in Rabat.
While suspension deprived Diarra of his starting place for the victors, Morocco’s Talbi was an unused substitute but, on a freezing Wearside night, they were reunited as Sunderland teammates and duly revelled in taking their frustrations out on Burnley.
Diarra had already created one goal and scored another by the time Talbi registered a spectacular third as Scott Parker’s side extended their winless run to 15 Premier League games. This extension of Sunderland’s undefeated Premier League home record pushed Régis Le Bris’s team out to eighth, almost within touching distance of European qualification.
Sunderland had lost their previous game 3-1 at West Ham. That uncharacteristically disappointing performance coincided with the rare absence of Granit Xhaka and, with an ankle injury once again sidelining Regis Le Bris’s inspirational captain, home fans wondered how their team might respond.
The answer came swiftly and incisively.
After playing a deft one-two with Brian Brobbey, and leaving Maxime Estève looking thoroughly dizzy and disorientated, Diarra took aim. This is where a little luck intervened as his shot took a deflection off Axel Tuanzebe that succeeded in wrong-footing Burnley’s former Newcastle goalkeeper, Martin Dubravka.
Although that strike was initially credited to Diarra, the Premier League’s goal accreditation panel recorded it as an own goal.
Significantly Trai Hume had been involved in it’s preamble. Although the versatile Northern Ireland full-back had endured a rare bad game at West Ham, Le Bris kept faith in one of the stalwarts of Sunderland’s promotion campaign last season. Accordingly Hume was handed Xhaka’s armband and a right-sided midfield role.
If that seemed impressive management, so, too, did the midfield fluidity and licence to improvise that led to Diarra and Noah Sadiki at times joining the similarly mobile Enzo Le Fée as No 10s operating behind Brobbey.
This tactic served to confuse Parker’s defence in a match that already involved Estève and friends being stretched to the limit in an attempt to contain Brobbey’s physicality. Now that he is properly fit, it is easy to appreciate why the former Ajax striker once came extremely close to joining Manchester United.
Not that Diarra is too shabby a finisher either. By way of proving the point he finally scored a goal of his own. It all began with a typically excellent pass from Le Fée. When it fell to Nordi Mukiele, the right-back’s ensuing cross fell to Diarra. No matter that the initial shot was blocked, the midfielder tried again, unleashing a strike that Dubravka touched but could not quite hold. If the Slovak should have done better, Burnley’s failure to mount any sort of real resistance to Mukiele’s cross hardly helped their cause.
It proved emblematic of the wider picture; quite simply Le Fée and co were far sharper and slicker than their visitors, with whom they came up from the Championship last spring.
Burnley’s failure to properly test Robin Roefs during the opening period only emphasised why Parker’s players appear so inexorably on course to return to the second tier shortly after the clocks go forward.
Burnley’s manager resisted the temptation to introduce his new signing, the West Ham loanee – and set-piece expert – James Ward-Prowse at half-time and instead replaced Tuanzebe with Josh Laurent as he switched from a back three to a back four.
Yet Parker’s problem was not really down to formation. It was more that, a few promising cameos from Marcus Edwards apart, his team offered precious little menace and seemed to lack a change of pace to destabilise the hosts.
Burnley’s general aimlessness appeared to affect Sunderland in the course of a second half that saw the home side’s passing radar go a little awry as, despite Dubravka being required to save smartly from Brobbey, an element of concentration was lost.
Dubravka subsequently took his frustration out on Hume as the pair squared up for a bout of push and shove that saw them both booked.
The visiting goalkeeper’s night only deteriorated when Talbi cut inside and curled Sunderland’s third goal beyond his reach from just outside the area.
It was a superb finish but Burnley made next to no attempt to close the Morocco winger down.
