Whisper it quietly, but people are starting to notice us. After weeks of going under the radar, bookies classing us as underdogs and pundits underestimating us, the win over Wolves has made a lot of people sit up and take notice.
I know many of us would’ve preferred to continue to sit under the radar and quietly collect points while nobody notices, but we’re starting to put a pretty impressive a together.
After eight games in the Premier League, we sit in seventh position with fourteen points and a goal
difference of +3. Equal on points with Spurs and Chelsea and a point behind last season’s champions, Liverpool, we’re nine points above the drop zone and have accrued more points in eight games than Southampton did all last season — and we’re five points above the Mags!
We were actually favourites to win the game on Saturday with the bookies, and Sky Sports’ team of the weekend contained almost all of our defence — Omar Alderete, Nordi Mukiele and Trai Hume, plus Noah Sadiki.
Radio phone-in shows are mischievously asking Sunderland fans if they’ve got their passports ready, and while it’s true, all of the teams we have played this season are below us in the table, as there are only six places above us and we’ve only played eight games, it’s not too surprising.
Added to the fact that there’s another rather unlikely occupant of the upper echelons in Bournemouth, it’s no surprise that four out of our next seven games are against teams above us in the league.
There’s no denying that we deserve to be where we are. We have the second best defence in the league, second only to league leaders Arsenal, and have only conceded six goals thus far this season. In contrast, Arsenal have only let in three and Manchester City have also only relinquished six.
As I predicted last week, the Mags succumbed at Brighton and their fans are muttering about their performances.
Our defence has been magnificent. During the summer, the initial outlay was on midfielders and we were all saying we needed to address the defence, but I think we can say that box was well and truly ticked.
Mukiele was a revelation on Saturday and it’s the way our midfielders also put in a shift to help out the defence, with Enzo Le Fée and Chemsdine Talbi covering at the back as well as contributing to our goals.
The summer recruitment was outstanding and the players brought in have slotted into the system perfectly. Régis Le Bris has to take a lot of credit for this — how on earth did we find him after so little experience?
It must be killing those who were critical of the model at how incredibly successful it’s proved to be so far.
Of course, the litmus test will be the next few games, but I’m not scared. Bring them on, I say. See if you can get past Mukiele, Alderete, Ballard and Hume.
