Sunderland were beaten 3-1 by West Ham United at the London Stadium

For Régis Le Bris to make a substitution at half time is highly irregular. To make three? Unprecedented.

That told you everything you need to know about a dismal first half for Sunderland, both in terms of how Le Bris’s selection backfired and how poor his side were in their individual duels all over the pitch. After that? A little better, sure. Sunderland saw more of the ball and scored through a fine Brian Brobbey header, but they paid a heavy price for that first-half showing and by the end it was impossible to argue with the 3-1 scoreline. West Ham had been by far the better side on a chastening day for the Black Cats. If Granit Xhaka is to absent for any further period of time, then Le Bris and Sunderland will surely have to back to the drawing board as to how they go about replacing him.

Sunderland had been rocked by the news of Xhaka's absence due to injury in the build up to the game, and Le Bris had made the interesting call not to try and replace him like-for-like. The Black Cats instead matched West Ham United's attacking 4-4-2, with Eliezer Mayenda coming into the side. Sunderland did actually start the brighter, getting into advanced areas and causing some problems with set pieces.

A slow start gave way to an open contest, space for Sunderland on the break as West Ham committed bodies forward. Once it began to go wrong for Sunderland, though, the afternoon unravelled at what will for Le Bris have been an alarming rate in Xhaka's absence. West Ham's wingers were causing problems from the off, and combined when Bowen beat Reinildo too easily on the outside around fifteen minutes in. The cross on his weaker foot to the heart of the box was good, and Summerville towered above Mukiele to head past Roefs. There were some signs of encouragement for Sunderland from set pieces in particular, but they were the architects if their own downfall in how often they invited counter attacks through their sloppy errors possession. West Ham were quickly doubling up in ther wide areas and to put it bluntly, Sunderland couldn't cope. Hume was penalised when Scarles went over his leg in the penalty box, Roefs guessing the right way but unable to stop Bowen's inch-perfect effort.

A shocker of a half got worse as Summerville sprung Sunderland's offside trap, combining nicely in the box with Taty Catellanos. His shot was blocked by Ballard but ran kindly for Fernandes, who then scored a stunning strike from 25 yards out. No Sunderland player had gone out to apply any pressure but it was a brilliant effort that beat Roefs even though the goalkeeper managed to get a hand to it. It could have been worse for Sunderland before the break, Reinildo very fortunate to get away without a second yellow card for a trip on Bowen. Sunderland's selection had badly misfired, but they had also been outrun and outfought all over the pitch.

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How bad had Sunderland’s first-half performance been? Well, Le Bris has hardly ever made a half-time sub in his tenure but now made three: Cirkin, Talbi and Diarra introduced at the interval.

Though Sunderland’s energy and desire to try and put things right was visible in the opening stages of the half, pressing high and looking to engage West Ham, a first half that had gone better than the hosts could possibly have imagined had visibly improved their confidence. Though Sunderland were conceding fewer clear openings, the hosts knocked the back around with composure - Fernandes particularly impressive in midfield after his goal.

So a lifeline when it came for Sunderland was wholly unexpected, a nice bit of play from the impressive Diarra to release Mukiele on the overlap. He fired in a ball and at the back post, Brobbey did very well to beat Areola even as he arched backwards to meet the powerful cross. With 25 minutes to play, Sunderland were just about back in it. A combination of West Ham dropping a little deeper and Sunderland moving an extra player into midfield allowed the visitors to begin dominating possession and territory, even if chances were relatively sparse.

Sunderland pressed for more and almost got another back when subsitute O’Nien’s scuffed cross flew towards the near post and almost caught Areola off guard, the goalkeeper pushing onto his own woodwork before gathering. Sunderland carved out fewer clear openings, though, and it was actually West Ham who came closes to a fourth as Fernandes smashed another long-range effort off the underside of the bar. They had steadied a little in the second half but Sunderland were well beaten, of that there was no doubt.