Sunderland’s mathematical safety in the Premier League was confirmed with the point at Wolves on Saturday afternoon, yet the potential we’ve seen from what this team can achieve when they put their minds to it has had me lusting for even more recently — and that’s left me in a rather strange position as I sit here today.
Yes, I can’t deny that I’m absolutely over the knot that we’ve achieved what we set out to achieve at the start of the season, and in truth, we have never even looked in a hint of danger at any point over the last eight months. It’s all been relatively straightforward, and that’s not what you typically expect from Sunderland, but maybe this is the new normal for us. Instead of chaos and panic, the way forward for this club may well be to steadily grow and improve year on year — and I don’t have a crystal ball, so I can’t tell you if that will 100% definitely be the case, but I suspect that this is the real start of Sunderland’s rebirth as a force in the world’s greatest division.
That doesn’t mean that I don’t feel disappointed by the last couple of results, though, as these have felt like two massive missed opportunities. We were an absolute disgrace against Nottingham Forest, and whilst I think we put in a much more Sunderland-like performance at Molyneux, it can’t be denied that the red card given to Dan Ballard absolutely killed our chances of stepping up in the game and capitalising on our momentum. Despite the Nottingham Forest result, we really ought to be sitting here on two more points, and whilst that might seem relatively minor in the grand scheme of things, we have just three games remaining and every single point counts.
Eighth place looks likely to be enough to get yourself a place in the Europa Conference League, and we’re only three points behind with two games coming up against teams around us in the table, so it’s not completely out of reach… but we need to take something off Manchester United next weekend if we’re going to stand any chance of doing it. To do that, we really need to treat these three games like cup finals — one game at a time, of course, but if we can pick up points, then we’ll at least give ourselves a chance going into the final weekend of the season of still having something to play for, and that should be the goal of us all.
So the manager, the coaches, the players, and the fans have to get on the same page this week. I don’t think we can manufacture the ‘feeling’, but we all have a part to play in giving ourselves the best chance of making it happen.
When emotions were still raw at full time on Saturday, I tweeted something that seemed to trigger some of my fellow fans about our chances of still achieving a European finish. I don’t get the negativity at all. I know we aren’t in great form, but the gap is only three points, and nothing can be gained from talking ourselves down.
What’s the point in writing ourselves off? If we beat Manchester United next weekend — and whilst that seems a tall order, it’s not completely unrealistic to say that we might — then everyone will be feeling really positively about our chances. It effectively makes those games with Everton and Chelsea six-pointers, as we’d stand half a chance of catching them in the table and moving ahead, and that simply has to be the goal.
We aren’t on the beach yet. If anyone is talking about the season being over now, I’d urge them to save that chatter for after the next game, where I imagine the picture of where things are headed will be very clear.
This club has taken us on a magical ride over the last twelve months, and I think it would be foolish to rule out something else really daft happening before the campaign comes to a close. Let’s get any negativity or doubt out of our minds and do our bit to help ensure we’re in brilliant shape at the weekend – because, as I said, you just never know what might happen if you’re still with this team right ‘til the end.
