Cattermole confident of survival

West Ham 0 Sunderland 0

Despite improvements in performance since Poyet replaced Paolo Di Canio, Sunderland will be bottom of the Premier League on Christmas Day after failing to find a winning goal despite creating the better chances.

“The manager said it is the best performance he has seen from his Sunderland side – we controlled the game throughout. The message is that if we play like that for the rest of the season we will have no worries, said Cattermole.”

Hammers boss Sam Allardyce, who is still waiting to unleash record signing Andy Carroll as the England striker works his way back from a heel injury, knows where his side needs to improve.

“It wouldn’t have mattered how we played – good, bad or indifferent – if we’d got the points, but we couldn’t find that bit of quality when needed,” he said.

WEST HAM: Jaaskelainen, Demel (O’Brien 58), Collins, Tomkins, McCartney, Morrison, Noble, Joe Cole (Carlton Cole 75), Diame, Jarvis (Collison 56), Maiga.

SUNDERLAND: Mannone, Celustka, O’Shea, Brown, Bardsley (Dossena 82), Cattermole, Ki, Giaccherini, Larsson, Borini (Johnson 72), Altidore (Fletcher 73).

Referee: Andre Marriner.