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Beaten Black Cats 7-4 for relegation

DAVID MOYES is still waiting for his first point as Sunderland manager after the Black Cats were beaten 2-1 by Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light.

Cristhian Stuani proved to be the difference, scoring twice in the first half, including one thunderbolt from distance to break the deadlock.

The result highlighted how newly-promoted Boro deserve to be back in the top flight and the difficult task facing Moyes, who clearly needs to act in the transfer market to bring in reinforcements to strengthen a patched-up squad.

Sunderland are 7-4 to be relegated, while Boro are out to 11-2 to drop out of the division and Moyes can be backed at 10-1 with Hills to be the first Premier League manager to leave his current position.

Patrick van Aanholt gave the Black Cats hope with 19 minutes remaining but Sunderland were unable to complete the fightback and Moyes could do with a win just to calm any fears regarding his suitability in replacing Sam Allardyce.

Sunderland are 2-5 to beat Sky Bet League One side Shrewsbury on Wednesday in the League Cup second round, although the Wearsiders are out to 11-2 to win at Southampton in the Premier League on Saturday.

West Ham made a winning Premier League start to life in the Olympic Stadium but they left it late to beat Bournemouth 1-0.

The Hammers drifted from evens out to 6-4 following the news that Dimitri Payet was unavailable, while Andy Carroll has been ruled out for between four to six weeks with his latest injury and those who opposed West Ham were five minutes from collecting until Michail Antonio popped up at the far post to head Slaven Bilic’s boys to victory.

Neither team offered much in the final third but Harry Arter’s red card on 78 minutes for two bookable offences gave West Ham the edge and Antonio took full advantage.
Bournemouth, who nearly equalised through Josh King at the death, remain pointless and are 10-3 to be relegated, while West Ham can now concentrate on Thursday’s Europa League second-leg playoff against Astra.

Hull are odds-on for relegation despite their perfect start to the campaign and Betfred rate caretaker coach Mike Phelan 12-1 to win the August Premier League manager of the month award with the Tigers set to face Manchester United at home on Saturday.

There’s a case for suggesting Phelan should claim the honour just for landing upsets against Leicester and Swansea but he will surely get it should Hull avoid defeat against United so that 12-1 must be considered a big price given the problems facing the temporary boss.

Local rivals Ipswich and Norwich played out a 1-1 draw at Portman Road in the Sky Bet Championship after Jonas Knudsen cancelled out Cameron Jerome’s opener.

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