Sunderland Vs Manchester United: Player Ratings

Simon Mignolet - 7

His usual self really. Saved everything you'd expect him to and didn't at any stage look too pressured. Nothing he could do about the goal in the first half, so just another typical Mignolet performance.

Phil Bardsley - 5

The mark may seem a little harsh at first glance but consider this. While he did well, coped with Young quite well he was very much at fault for allowing Robin Van Persie to get back from the byline, into the area and showed him onto his better foot. We;ll not even go into the ludicrous amount of poor efforts from distance.

John O'Shea - 7

Looked comfortable up against his former teammates. In truth he was rarely troubled by Van Persie and Kagawa in attack. Reliable when called upon though.

Titus Bramble - 6

The own goal was a real shame for Titus today. It was under no pressure at all and it was more a natural reaction than doing anything particularly wrong. Provided a few moments of worry, but looked strong in the tackle for the majority of the game.

Danny Rose - 6

A decent enough performance. Didn't quite attack as much as we might have liked but did ok. Not a great deal to write home about for him today.

Adam Johnson - 5

Inexplicably terrible yet again. Clearly he has talent and lots of it, but a million and one step-overs count for nothing when your end product is as woeful as his was today. Substituted about 10 minutes too late as he was contributing absolutely nothing.

Alfred N'Diaye - 7

When he was booked early on it looked as though he wouldn't make it through the full game, but credit to him for doing so. Other than that he won quite a few important tackles in the midfield to reignite some lacklustre attacks and generally did quite well.

Craig Gardner - 8

Lots of admiration here for his effort and he had one of his better games in midfield. Didn't really create much but did enough to warrant starting there again next week. Him and N'Diaye looked our best central midfield combination for a number of weeks.

James McClean - 8

Reintroduced to the team as Steven Fletcher misses out through injury and showed the type of passion we've been lacking. Didn't get a great deal of crosses in which is something to be worried about, but from a defensive and hard working standpoint he was faultless.

Stephane Sessegnon - 6

Tasked with the job of creating for Graham but he didn't seem to have the same chemistry he does with Fletcher. Equally he didn't get beyond Graham enough for my liking during the brief period where Graham looked like an actual footballer.

Danny Graham - 6

Did he do enough today? Yes, it was just enough but we really need to see more from him. Won his fair share of headers and sometimes needed a little bit more help but was full of running. The low mark still probably his best game for us so far. Improved, but not a great deal on previous weeks.

Connor Wickham - 6

Provided an extra dimension when he came on and should surely be pushing Graham for a starting berth in the next few weeks. Created and worked hard. Could have done with being on the pitch much, much earlier.

Seb Larsson - 5

Came on for Bardsley and was pretty nondescript in the centre of midfield with Gardner shifted to right-back.

Jack Colback - 5

Barely noticeable.

Man Of The Match - Craig Gardner

A tough call between him, N'Diaye and McClean for me but I'm going to give it to Gardner. His effort was superb, he mustered a few albeit poor efforts on goal and generally he did very well. His best performance in weeks and quite surprisingly in the middle of midfield, where he's traditionally struggled.

We'll have more match reaction from today's game over the weekend and coming days HERE in our Match Stream.