18th

A quiet day today. Little to report other than an ill advised demolition of a tub of ice cream (one of the new Cadbury ones, candy floss and marshmallows were involved) and a truly insipid Manchester United performance in a 0-3 defeat to Everton. Having been 2-0 down at half time, for a United side to show a complete lack of desire or application to get back into the match is unacceptable. Should Liverpool win their game in hand against Hull on Tuesday, the deficit between 4th and 5th will be reduced to four points. With regards to Champions League qualification, it will be what Sir Alex Ferguson would have described as "squeaky bum time".

Yesterday saw Sunderland finally drop into the bottom three, the inevitable result of a truly wretched season. For some reason, Sky elected to show their 1-1 draw at Stoke in its entirety as their game of the day. What I saw was a performance reasonably high in application but low in quality. We have every right to wonder where that application was in say, the 4-1 and 4-0 defeats at home to Crystal Palace and Aston Villa in the not too distant past. Connor Wickham capitalised on an early fumble from Stoke goalkeeper Asimir Begovic to give Sunderland the lead before Charlie Adam equalised on the 25 minute mark. In fairness, it was a strike that probably would have beaten any goalkeeper in the world. But that's little consolation.

A home fixture with Southampton next Saturday looms ominously. The Saints beat us 8-0 earlier on in the season in one of the biggest pastings in Premier League history. I cannot see anything other than an away win and possibly a sizable one. With fixtures against the in form Everton, Leicester, Arsenal and Chelsea to conclude the league campaign, it's impossible to see an exit route from 18th place. Stick a fork in us, we're done.

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