Two games played, two games lost, seven goals conceded. This is going to be a long season for Sunderland.

Last week’s defeat against Leicester was bad but this reverse at home to promoted Norwich was very much worse. So much so that it left the club’s manager Dick Advocaat visibly shocked after the game. 

“What was so wrong was I saw players — and I don’t want to mention names, it was the whole team, with the exception of one or two players — and they did things that I don’t expect from a player at this level,” said the Black Cats’ boss. 

“I have to know why that can happen because it’s really strange for me. You can play badly but not even knowing what to do is even worse. I’m really shocked.”

Sections of the crowd filtered out after Norwich scored their third just before the hour mark but more significantly those that remained started chanting: “Are you watching Ellis Short?” It was the first time criticism of the club’s owner had been so openly and vocally displayed. More results like this and it is unlikely to be the last.

The Canaries, evidently the better of the two teams, were brighter and more creative — Sunderland sluggish and uninventive by comparison. 

“The performance and the result showed that we are more than capable of holding our own at this level,” said Norwich boss Alex Neil. “Some teams go away from home and will be happy to take a point. We go away from home and we want to win the game and we have done that more often than not since January. I don’t think there was a great deal in it for the first 10 or 15 minutes but once we got the goal we pretty much dominated.”