Sunderland have taken the Premier League by storm this season already and their early form suggests their stay in the top flight will be far from temporary.
Nobody expected Sunderland to be in the promotion conversation last season, but Regis Le Bris made the Black Cats tough to beat while having plenty of attacking threats. They stunned Sheffield United in the Championship play-off final to make it back to the Premier League for the first time since 2017.
Not content with simply making up the numbers, the Sunderland hierarchy sanctioned mass spending this summer. 15 new faces came through the door, at a total cost of over £163m.
[
Click to subscribe to the podcast ](https://www.youtube.com/@BeyondTheBackFour?sub_confirmation=1)
That looks like money well spent at the moment, with the Black Cats flying in seventh place after four wins from their first eight games. Pundits like Gary Neville praised Sunderland’s brilliant performances, and it now looks like they have a real shot of staying up this season.
Wilson Isidor and Granit Xhaka celebrate as Sunderland score against Aston Villa
Photo by ANDY BUCHANAN/AFP via Getty Images
Sunderland will stay up this season and can achieve sustained success
It’s not just the fact that Sunderland have recruited a lot of new players who all look good on paper. They’ve signed a great mix of experience and young talent, and Le Bris has a great balance in his squad now.
Granit Xhaka’s impact has been huge, while Wilson Isidor has picked up where he left off last season in terms of goalscoring. At the back, Nordi Mukiele has been a revelation, while goalkeeper Robin Roefs was nominated for September’s Player of the Month award.
They may have spent £50-60m more than their fellow promoted sides, Leeds and Burnley, but Sunderland have recruited so effectively and shrewdly that they’re now miles ahead of their rivals in regards to fighting relegation.
Obviously, it’s very early days and a lot can and will change over the next 30 matches in the Premier League season, but it already feels unthinkable that Sunderland will go down now.
TalkingPoints
Where will Sunderland finish this season?
Before the summer, everyone had written Sunderland off as the most likely to get relegated. Now, their name is not being mentioned in those conversations at all. The fact they picked up three points against Wolves last weekend is huge, too, with the Midlands outfit now looking consigned to the drop already.
But, what’s really exciting about Sunderland is that they don’t just look like a club that can narrowly avoid the drop this season before falling down next year. With the players they’ve signed, the transfer market acumen of Kristjaan Speakman, and the financial backing they have from owner Kyril Louis-Dreyfus, Sunderland look set for the long haul in the top flight.
You look at what Brentford have achieved over the last few years, or even Brighton and Crystal Palace on a bigger scale, and there’s clearly scope for teams like this to establish themselves in the Premier League. Sunderland are very much operating within that model, and it would not be surprising to see them here for the next decade if they keep getting the key decisions right on and off the pitch.
Regis Le Bris, Manager of Sunderland, looks on prior to the Premier League match between Sunderland and Wolverhampton Wanderers at Stadium of Light.
Photo by George Wood/Getty Images
How refreshing would it be, particularly after last year’s terrible showing from the promoted clubs, to have a team come up and stay up?
In 2024/25, Southampton very nearly matched Derby County’s record for the lowest points haul in Premier League history. Leicester City didn’t fare much better and put their fans through misery at the King Power Stadium for much of the backend of the campaign. Ipswich Town were a little more plucky, but still suffered the seemingly inevitable fate of relegation.
Recent seasons have seen Burnley go up and down and back up again. Leeds are back after a couple of seasons away from the top flight. Go back a few more years and the likes of Norwich City and Watford came up and dropped back down instantly.
It’s become an all-too-common theme that teams coming up to the Premier League simply cannot compete. They’re here for a fleeting visit and then fade back into the second tier, destined to go back and forth between the two divisions year after year.
Sunderland look different. They really do look like they can buck that trend and close the gap between the Championship and the Premier League. It costs a lot of money to do that, and even then, success is not guaranteed, but the Black Cats have all the necessary ingredients right now.
The last time they were promoted, they spent ten years in the top flight. I firmly believe we’ll see a similar tenure this time around.