On one hand, we had the northeast derbies back. While Newcastle United and Sunderland haven't troubled the title race for decades, the two clubs as a rivalry is still one that is noted and respected by football fans up and down the country. It's a hatred that dates back to the Civil War. Royalists versus Parliamentarians... King Charles I versus Oliver Cromwell... Newcastle versus Sunderland... it's a matchup that even neutrals look forward to.
It was also a chance for Newcastle to finally put a win to their name in the Premier League against their noisy neighbours since Ryan Taylor put a free kick 'over the wall' in 2011. Sunderland have won six in a row against us in the league since, as they often love to remind us. I suppose actual trophies are almost a thing of myth over there at this point...
But on the other hand, it meant that in Newcastle's packed Champions League schedule, there would be a game against a newly-promoted side where resting key players simply wasn't an option. Newcastle did well against the promoted sides last season, with league doubles over all three, and a goal difference of +17 and just one goal conceded. This season, they're going to be up against a side that would happily break our players' legs if they can get away with it.
Any excuse to put this picture up again...
All in all... Sunderland's promotion felt like a lose-lose... but not anymore!
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There wasn't much for Newcastle to gain from Sunderland's rise, besides the excitement of (at least) two more derby matches. But even then, it didn't feel worth it. Sunderland will bring their absolute A-game to the derby matches. So in truth, two supposedly 'easy' games against lesser opposition last season now become two major scheduling headaches for Eddie Howe as he attempts to fight on four fronts. You can't rest players for the derby. In fact, the Stadium of Light match might give us a dose of the medicine we dished out in recent hostile displays against PSG, Barcelona and Liverpool at St James' Park. It will be a much harder game than last season's visits to Portman Road, St Mary's and the King Power Stadium. With a lot more pressure riding on it.
Yet despite the extra effort Sunderland will put into this fixture, there was still the argument in pre-season that Sunderland were such underdogs that anything less than six points for Newcastle would be a disappointment... an embarrassment even. Imagine the Saudi-fronted, League Cup-winning, Champions League side dropping points against little old promoted Sunderland?
It was a lose-lose really. Even if Newcastle were to beat Sunderland comfortably, we would only be doing what was expected of us. Yet that narrative is slowly shifting...
Dan Ballard: Our own-goal hero of 2024 is the current flavour of the month in the Premier League
Let's not even deny it, Sunderland have been impressive... and it might work in Newcastle's favour...
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
As of Sunderland's impressive draw with table-topping Arsenal and before Newcastle head to Brentford, they sit ten places and seven points above us in the Premier League. It has become a frustrating side-plot that has only heaped further embarrassment on our domestic struggles this season. But for every impressive result Sunderland pick up... the more the perspective shifts in terms of the derby balance. Maybe it won't be expected for Eddie Howe's men to pick up three points simply by turning up? And if we can win at the SoL next month... it'll be looked at as a very impressive result that could build confidence with our league campaign.
I sat and watched us tonk the mackems 3-0 on my 30th birthday weekend last year. And it all felt like a formality. Sunderland huffed and puffed. Class clown Luke O'Nien clattered a seventeen year old child to show how big and tough he was, and Newcastle got three goals without really getting out of second gear. It didn't make me look to these derbies with much enthusiasm. We were expected to win, and if we didn't it would be humiliating. And we'd also have the likes of O'Nien and Dan Ballard trying to end Lewis Miley and Tino Livramento's careers...
But now, the mackems are gloating from the rooftops. They can't get any kind of result without turning it into a shot at Newcastle. Sunderland are doing well, and this success should be about Sunderland... but their inferiority complex is making it about Newcastle. For me, this suddenly makes the derbies a much more even playing field, and I like that.
For what it's worth (and taking my Newcastle-tinted specs off for a moment), it's refreshing to see a newly promoted side dishing out humblings to the Super League Six. The Premier League was becoming formulaic and stale.
I just hope we have the satisfaction of bringing the underdogs back down to earth next month.