DOUBTERS SILENCED

Sunderland’s historic start to our first Premier League season since 2017 has been doubted, discredited and undermined by one constant comment, you haven’t played anyone yet. The triumph over Chelsea, however, has shut down that narrative and proved that this team is a one that can go on to do special things this season, no less than not get relegated with a record-breaking low number, go the entire season win-less, be battered by one of the Premier League giants or, most recently, suffer a 10-0 defeat away at St James in December, as was confidently claimed by Dylan the South Shields Mag on Talk Sport.

To say that we were given a generous run of fixtures to start our season is a fair assessment. We avoided any of the ‘big six’ for our opening six fixtures, started the season with three games against fellow sides backed by the bookies to be relegated, and have been fortunate to play sides at what we could describe as ‘a good time to play them’, such as beating Forest whilst under Ange Postecoglu’s watch, sandwiched between two colossal European fixtures.

On the contrary, some of our team’s greatest achievements so far this season have been unfairly dismissed as not good enough to prove ourselves to our peers, competitors and those assessing our performances in the media.

Crystal Palace had not lost for fourteen consecutive matches (in all competitions) before we travelled to Selhurst Park, including triumphs over Manchester City and Liverpool, to both the FA cup and FA Community Shield. We travelled to Selhurst Park without any fear, battled hard and came away with a point and a clean sheet. Two weeks later, the current Premier League champions went (off the back of spending £400 million plus pounds) and suffered a 2-1 defeat.

Eight days later, a ten-men Sunderland came from behind against Aston Villa to rescue a point, and could have went on to win the game. The Villans, who reached the quarter finals of the Champions League last season, then went on to win their next not three, not four, but five consecutive games, including victories away in Europe and against Spurs.

Losing away to Man United was really disappointing. Despite being, in my view, still the biggest club in the world, they didn’t have to do anything special to beat us on what was an off-day all-round. Our first opportunity to silence the haters was squandered, which only put much larger emphasis on getting a result away to the blues.

As the game crept toward the ninetieth minute and added time, nerves grew as we slowly got closer to gaining a massive point, which, not only adds to our tally, but completely silences the claim that we haven’t done it against anyone of note, which (as explained above) was a claim without any real substance anyway. Regardless, a draw at Stamford Bridge is a good result for anyone in this league, whether a team’s aim to be to simply stay up, challenge for Europe or win the title.

Despite that, the lads played without fear and consistently threatened the Club World Cup Champions in the latter stages of the game, showing that we were not inferior, that we were there to compete, and that we, too, wanted to win the game. Eventually, we got what we deserved, and in the best way possible. An old fashioned yet cunning long-ball from Lutsharel Geertruida found Brian Brobbey, who used his physique and frame to his advantage to hold the ball whilst waiting for the run of Chemsdine Talbi, before the Moroccan calmly converted his opportunity, right in front of the away end, sending it into a red and white frenzy, before seeing out another historic win away at The Bridge (a ground where we are now prone to an upset).

A draw would have been brilliant. We could proudly added ‘a point away at Chelsea’ to our ever-growing list of responses to the claim that we ‘hadn’t played anyone yet’ or ‘hadn’t done it against any of the big boys’. To win, however, just makes it impossible to argue with the fact that this Sunderland team can give anyone a game, and nobody has the right to roll us over. Fixtures such as ‘Chelsea away’ aren’t ones that we would typically target for three points to take us toward that forty point target that almost guarantees survival, yet we’ve still went there and picked up the victory.

Of course, we’ll experience more off-days between now and the end of May, and, mathematically, the job is far from done; however, we have now silenced the doubters and ended the narrative that we haven’t played against anyone serious yet. We’ve played Chelsea away, played our hearts out, won, and returned to the North East second in the league after nine games. More credit to the lads, more credit to Regis Le Bris, and of course, as always, the travelling fans.

If you can’t get carried away at times like this, we might as well give up. Let’s get carried away man.