'Everything': Kevin Phillips issues 202-word verdict on Sunderland's win at Nottingham Forest

Kevin Phillips says Sunderland have put themselves in an 'incredible' position to go and secure Premier League safety after their 1-0 win over Nottingham Forest at the City Ground.

Omar Alderete's first-half goal secured the three points for the Black Cats, who sit third in the early Premier League table ahead of Sunday's fixtures. Phillips was a pundit on the game for Sky Sports and praised Régis Le Bris for bringing the squad together so quickly after a major summer overhaul. He also hailed Granit Xhaka as an 'inspirational' signing for the club.

"Desire, resilience... everything you need to win football matches," Phillips said.

"To go to Nottingham Forest with Ange Postecoglou's first home game, and put in a performance like that... Did they deserve to win it? I'm going to say yes because they took their opportunity and showed everything to win tonight. It's an incredible result and an incredible start to the season. I said before, they went out and bought players that they needed. They identified positions and what qualities they needed and you have to give the biggest compliments to Régis Le Bris for bringing these players together and incorporating his philosophy so quickly. For them to take it into the best league of the world and perform, it's a credit to him and his staff.

"The biggest one for me is Granit Xhaka, man of the match tonight," Phillips added.

"He's been an inspirational signing, whoever pushed that and got that going.. it's an incredible signing. We all know it's a tough, tough league and there's a long, long way to go but they've put themselves in an incredible position. It's an easy comment to make [after the start] but I don't see this team getting beat 3, 4-0.. they've got a bit of everything."

Former Sunderland and Nottingham Forest midfielder Andy Reid felt the hosts will have been disappointed not to get something from the game, with both pundits agreeing that it was a harsh decision from the referee to penalise and book Nicolas Dominguez for the free kick from which Sunderland scored.

"It'll be a tough one to take, it's a game that they've dominated really," Reid said.

"They had the chances particularly in the second half to get something out of it and probably to go on and win it. They'll be disappointed to lose the game from a poor refereeing decision."

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Le Bris explains his key Sunderland defensive call

Régis Le Bris praised Arthur Masuaku for his performance at left back on his first league start for the club, having made the difficult decision not to bring Dan Ballard back into the side following Reinildo’s red card against Aston Villa.

“It was the most natural option, left-back for a left-back,” Le Bris said.

“He did well.It wasn't easy because he got a yellow card early in the game and their wingers are really powerful and strong in one vs one, so it was an important decision to change after 60 minutes. It's still a question of momentum and feeling during the week.

“We analysed the previous game deeply so we can feel the dynamic and the consistency is really important so I didn't want to change to go to a back five early in the game. It worked well even if it wasn't perfect.”

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