Sunderland came from behind to beat 10-man Swansea City 4-2 thanks to Jermain Defoe’s hat-trick, but the match was dominated by questionable refereeing decisions.
Defoe gave Sunderland an early lead, turning home the rebound after Lukasz Fabianski could only parry Fabio Borini’s shot to the marginally-offside former England international.
Gylfi Sigurdsson then scored from the penalty spot after 22 minutes when Wes Brown was adjudged by referee Graham Scott to have impeded Andre Ayew in the box.
Scott, a late replacement for Andre Marriner, was making just his fourth Premier League appearance and harshly sent off Kyle Naughton for a high boot on Yann M’Vila after 37 minutes.
Sunderland were level shortly after half-time when Patrick van Aanholt’s shot took a wicked deflection off Federico Fernandez and flew into the top corner.
Defoe then defied the assistant referee again, sweetly finishing off Adam Johnson’s throughball, before Angel Rangel saw a strike ruled out for offside and Defoe completed his treble by tucking in Van Aanholt’s low cross.
Both managers rotated their squads after weekend defeats in the FA Cup, with Leon Britton making his 500th Swansea appearance.
Leave a Reply