Despite falling behind at the end of the first-half, Sunderland dug in and, through a Jermain Defoe strike, secured their first point of the season and a 1-1 draw with Swansea City.
The goals
Dick Advocaat's side might have thought they were destined to lose a third straight game as they fell behind on the stroke of the interval - through a strike from in-form forward Bafetimbi Gomis. Once again, Patrick van Aanholt looked vulnerable down the Sunderland left and the visitors exploited this to good effect as André Ayew and Kyle Naughton combined well with the latter, picking out Gomis in the middle, who had no problems slotting the ball into the bottom corner of the net.
Unlike in the previous games though, Sunderland did not feel sorry for themselves having falling behind. Just after the hour mark, they got themselves back on level terms, with Defoe grabbing his second goal of the new campaign. As a unit, the Black Cats were aggressive and won the ball high up the pitch before feeding the fantastic Jermain Lens, who played a defence-splitting pass down the middle for the experienced Englishman.
The former Tottenham Hostspur forward took his strike firmly and in some style, to finish well and level the scoring on the afternoon's proceedings.
A cagey first-half
There were many surprises in the first 45, as Sunderland looked pretty solid at the back with John O'Shea helping to steady things down the middle, which in turn was beneficial for Sebastian Coates alongside him. Meanwhile, the Swans were struggling to deal with their physical approach in midfield as Lens and Lee Cattermole were both booked early in the first-half.
The closest either side came to scoring, apart from the goals, was when Gomis did well to flick a cross down for creative midfielder Gylfi Sigurdsson who lined up an effort to strike goalwards - but was denied by a fantastic block from Danny Graham who found himself back in defence.
End-to-end second 45
If the first half was nervy then the second 45 was the exact opposite - with both sides looking a real threat going forward. Things started to look encouraging even before Defoe got the goal as a few minutes before, Jack Rodwell did well to rob Jonjo Shelvey high up the field and quickly turn and have a decent effort, 25 yards out. The eventual effort continued to rise above goal, but nonetheless, a promising attack out of seemingly nothing.
Also just after the goal, the Black Cats had a great opportunity to seal the winner with fifteen minutes left to play. Lens ran at the Swansea backline down the left, and beat Naughton for pace before accelerating into the area - his pass across the box for substitute striker Steven Fletcher was begging for a touch from the Scottish forward, but the ball was inches behind him with the goal gaping.
Pantillimon to the rescue
As improved as Sunderland were, it was a pretty busy day for Costel Pantillimon in goal nonetheless. The giant Romanian made three crucial saves in the last third of the game, the last of which from goal-scorer Gomis was truly world class as he clawed a close-range header out of the far corner after good work down the left flank from exciting winger Jefferson Montero.
Along with that memorable stop, he also made a couple of good saves in quick succession beforehand. Firstly, he beat away a stinging effort from Shelvey from distance, before he did very well to get down low to his left and tip Sigurdsson's effort from the edge of the area around the post.