If we are all honest with ourselves, when we saw the fixture list at the start of the season, you would probably admit that Chelsea away is one of those fixtures where we thought we would be likely to get a good slapping. Along with Liverpool, Arsenal, and Manchester City away, it was one of those away trips where you would have expected Sunderland to bring little back to Wearside.
Going into the game on Saturday, after our opening eight games of the season where we had, by our admittance, a kinder
run of fixtures, even some of our own fans felt this was ‘where our season starts’. We had reaped an impressive number of points up to that point, but Chelsea away was somewhere where you wouldn’t really expect to come away with much change.
My own feeling in regard to our start to the season was that yes, we had an easier run of fixtures up to that point, but if this Sunderland team was destined to struggle this season, then we would not have won so many games up to that point – four of our opening eight games. If we were going to be in a relegation fight, we would have drawn maybe one or two of the games at home that we won and lost a game such as Villa at home when we were reduced to ten men.
So, in the context of the season overall, the signs had been good in my view that we were not going to finish in or near the bottom of the table.
Looking forward over the fixtures coming up for the following month, I felt confident that we could keep picking up points – after all, Fulham are not pulling up any trees, and Everton have now lost three of the last six. I felt we could cause an upset at some point, but with an eye that was more on the home game against Arsenal – but I still didn’t expect to come away from Chelsea with anything.
Looking back at the game on Saturday, though, the win was no fluke. It was deserved; we looked the more likely winner as the game went on, and not for the first time, Régis Le Bris tactically out-thought his counterpart. The points Sunderland have accrued in the nine games played this season have not been a fluke, and they have all been earned. Our present fourth place in the Premier League (second on Saturday night) is entirely on merit.
The national pundits, while giving a nod to the ‘well-organised’ Régis Le Bris side, seem to week in and week out reserve the individual praise to Granit Xhaka. In a way, this is understandable, as at the start of the season, he was the only ‘known player of real quality’ to be recruited that the London-based press knew all about from his Arsenal days. Most of our other signings came from overseas, and only the likes of Masuaku, Traoré, and Adingra had played in the Premier League before and have yet to impose themselves in the first team. The media didn’t know how good a quality our recruitment was bringing in, and as fans, neither did we.
Yet for Sunderland fans who watch and follow the team week in and week out, we know that this is no one-man show. Xhaka has been a great signing and has been consistent in high-quality performances since the season began. But since the first ball was kicked against West Ham in August, it is also the likes of Nordi Mukiele, Noah Sadiki, Robin Roefs, Reinildo and Omar Alderete who have put in equally impressive performances every week. Wilson Isidor has been a threat every time he has played, scoring some crucial goals, and when fit, Dan Ballard has looked as good as anyone in our line-up.
Chemsdine Talbi is starting to look like he is ready to come to the party, and then what about Lutsharel Geertruida, who stood in for the injured Alderete at Stamford Bridge? Aside from looking an assured classy presence at the back, the national media have described his long ball for Brobbey at the end as at best ‘a hopeful punt’. But watching it back, he looked up and saw Brobbey’s run before playing the pass. For me, he planted the ball exactly where he wanted it to go.
You don’t go up to second – or now fourth – in the table with a one-man show, and while we may not have known what we had after our recruitment concluded, it’s fair to say that we are now starting to appreciate that we look like we have some real, not just consistent, but quality players in our squad. Allied to the existing team spirit that they have bought into and the organisation of Régis Le Bris’s side, then you can see what has got us there.
It might be the kiss of death, but tougher fixtures or not over the next couple of months, I don’t see us falling off a cliff any time soon.
