AT least Sunderland have avoided equalling an unwanted record they have held for the last three years, even if they are still waiting for that elusive first victory of the season.

Three years ago the Black Cats recorded just a single point from their opening eight fixtures and that woeful statistic is the worst in the history of the Premier League.

It looked for 84 minutes that David Moyes’ crop of 2016 could head towards that until Patrick van Aanholt, introduced as a substitute because of an injury to Jan Kirchhoff, struck an equaliser to earn a draw.

Sunderland have another point, making it two from the first seven games in the league. While they have avoided that ‘worst team’ tag for now, nobody is getting carried away because the challenge facing them just to stay in the top-flight is a monumental one.

A relegation fight has become a familiar theme on Wearside and this season is going to be no different. Moyes has already admitted it and every person inside the Stadium of Light on Saturday would find it impossible to disagree.

Moyes might have introduced a more youthful look to this Sunderland team and brought in a number of new players since taking over, but for the majority of this game it was clear that finishing just above the bottom three will be a major achievement.

There are survivors of the most recent, and successful, relegation battles. John O’Shea, the sponsors’ man of the match against West Brom, is one of those and he is well aware of the similarities to previous years – even if he thinks Moyes can take the club forward.

“We need to get a win, it’s as simple as that, it’s the most important thing,” said O’Shea. “We had a change of management at the start of the season and it’s a case of new ideas yet again.

“The players once again have to adapt quickly and the sooner we get that first win, it will be a weight off our shoulders, and that will be a big thing.

“This manager is bringing in his own ideas, more control, midfielders controlling the game a bit more. Slowly and surely we’re doing that but not enough yet. We need to punish teams in the spells that we’re doing that.

“We can’t use the change in management as an excuse, we could have taken something from a lot of these games – Man City on the opening day, for example.

“The only one where we were out of it was at Everton. Every other one we could and should have taken something.”

Moyes only took over in July when Sam Allardyce, who must be wishing he had stayed put after the events of the last week, decided to quit and take over the England hot-seat.

He has brought in a number of new faces. Didier Ndong, the £16m buy from Lorient, looks a decent acquisition, while it is a team still boasting the talents of Jermain Defoe, Jan Kirchhoff and Lamine Kone.

But it remains a team still shorn of balance and continuity.

“Sunderland looked positive and promising in spells against West Brom, but it is indicative of their problems that it is impossible to second guess what formation, never mind the team, Moyes will field.

On this occasion it often resembled a Christmas tree system until Kirchhoff’s hamstring injury just before the hour led to the manager switching to wing-backs.

“That proved fruitful as Sunderland came from behind to nick a point.

“The manager has brought new bodies in and you’ve got to get used to different team-mates and different tactics, different ideas,” said O’Shea.

“There have been a lot of changes in the team due to injuries and other things, different reasons.

“There are a lot of factors. If the fans see players having the right attitude, giving that 100 per cent commitment, they will be right behind us.

“It was made out as a seamless transition when this manager took over from the last one, but it never can be.

“We’ve had a few managers here and every single one of them is different.

“It’s never going to be exactly the same as the last one.

“Everyone’s got their own ideas so it was never going to be the same.

“They’re different managers, different people.

“We’re still in the Premier League, we’re Premier League players and we want to remain so to give the fans more to enjoy, that’s what everyone wants to do, but it takes a bit of time.”

Sunderland’s bright start, which should have seen Jermain Defoe open the scoring when he shot wide following good build-up play involving Duncan Watmore and Ndong, came to nothing and West Brom went ahead in the 35th minute.

Kirchhoff lost possession, Matt Phillips played in Nacer Chadli and the former Tottenham man got clear of Kone before picking out the inside of Jordan Pickford’s far post.

The Sunderland goalkeeper had to make a couple of other decent stops before van Aanholt pounced for the equaliser with just six minutes remaining. He stopped a Baggies attack, kept running forward and ended up turning Watmore’s reverse pass beyond Ben Foster.

Sunderland could even have had a winner in the closing stages but the reality is they remain winless from seven Premier League fixtures and have a trip to struggling Stoke to come after the international break.

O’Shea, a calming influence at the back on his return to the side ahead of £8m buy Papy Djilobodji, said: “I wouldn’t call this a storm.

“It’s just one of those things in football, a change in manager, you’ve got to adapt to it, work hard, improve fitness levels and try to implement the manager’s ideas better.

“We also need to stick together, take responsibility.

“I’m impressed what the manager is trying to do but it does take time.

“We wanted a clean sheet and three points, but when you go one down against a stubborn outfit like West Brom, who’ve added a bit of quality to their team and are capable on the counter-attack, you sometimes have to settle for a point. We lost a bit of control and they could have been out of sight, but saying that we could have taken an early lead and we made a great start, so all in all it’s a positive that we got something out of the game.”