Sunderland head into the final day with Europe still possible after a season few could have imagined
In the words of the late Davey Atkinson: let’s get carried away, man. Because why not?
Go back to May 2025. Harrison Burrows has just put Sheffield United 2-0 up at Wembley, or at least he thinks he has. Sunderland are staring at another play-off final heartbreak, and the Premier League still feels a long way away. Now imagine somebody had tapped you on the shoulder and told you what was coming next.
Sunderland would win promotion. They would not only survive in the Premier League, but do so with more than 50 points. They would take 22 from losing positions. They would beat Newcastle United twice. They would reach the final day with a sniff of Europe. They would go to Everton, come from behind and win 3-1 with Enzo Le Fée, Brian Brobbey and Wilson Isidor writing another chapter in a campaign beyond most predictions.
Would you have believed it? Of course you wouldn’t. You would have been told to sit down, have a drink of water and stop being ridiculous. Yet here Sunderland are. One game to go. Chelsea at the Stadium of Light. A top-10 finish within reach. European football still possible. A club that spent so long trying to escape the quicksand has not only returned to the Premier League, but changed the conversation around itself in one season.
The equation is simple enough. Sunderland have to beat Chelsea at the Stadium of Light. If they do that, they need either Brentford to draw or lose against Liverpool, or Brighton to lose against Manchester United. If Sunderland win and both Brentford and Brighton fail to win, the prize becomes even bigger: Europa League rather than Conference League.
This is not normal. Sunderland’s European history is not some long, decorated archive of continental nights and famous foreign trips. The club’s experience of major European competition starts and ends with the 1973-74 Cup Winners’ Cup campaign, earned after Bob Stokoe’s side lifted the FA Cup as a Second Division club. For Sunderland to even be discussing Europe again, more than half a century later, is remarkable.
A top-10 finish would carry its own weight, too. Sunderland have managed that only four times in the top flight in the last 70 years. Finishing there again would be the fifth. Their current total of 51 points is the club’s best return since the Peter Reid years around 1999 and 2000, and only the third time Sunderland have passed the half-century mark in the Premier League era.
Strip away the emotion, and the numbers tell you how unusual this season has been. This has not been a little survival story built on scraping enough points before the wheels came off. Sunderland have been competitive, brave and flawed at times, but they have consistently found a way to stay in games, turn moments and punch upwards.
Only Fulham have done the double over them. Sunderland have taken points from everyone else in the Premier League. They have not spent the season waiting for the trapdoor. They have gone toe-to-toe with the division and taken points from almost everyone in it.
They have done it while dealing with injuries, navigating AFCON absences and having less time than everyone else to prepare for the Premier League after winning promotion through the play-offs. They have done it while integrating 13 new players into a squad that had already gone through Wembley.
That is why Régis Le Bris deserves immense credit. 22 (yes, twenty-two) points from losing positions does not happen by accident. It speaks to fitness, belief, tactical flexibility and a dressing room that has not accepted the idea that the Premier League is simply something to endure.
Against Chelsea, Sunderland will need the Stadium of Light to feel like the Stadium of Light on one of those days when the air changes before kick-off. They will need calm heads, but they will also need emotion. They will need 45,000 Mackems turning the final day into something Chelsea do not fancy.
And there are reasons to think Sunderland can do it. Nobody should pretend Chelsea do not carry serious quality, but they arrive at the end of a difficult run, without a win in seven Premier League games, having just lost the FA Cup final and operating under an interim manager. They also play Tottenham on Tuesday, while Sunderland have a full week to prepare. At this stage, that matters.
Sunderland have put themselves in a position where Chelsea at home, on the final day, genuinely means something. They might not get the results they need elsewhere. They could beat Chelsea and still fall short, or not beat them at all. Football does that. Sunderland supporters know better than most that the game does not always reward romance. But that is for later. For now, there is a week to enjoy the possibility.
The natural instinct, especially around Sunderland, is to guard against disappointment. Keep your feet on the ground. Do not get ahead of yourself. Remember where you have come from. All of that is understandable. This club has given people enough scars over the years. Sometimes, though, football gives you a moment that deserves to be enjoyed before anyone tries to rationalise it away. This is one of them.
If the Stadium of Light is bouncing, if Le Bris gets the details right, if Le Fée finds those pockets, if Xhaka controls the tempo, if Brobbey gives Chelsea’s defenders a horrible afternoon, if Roefs has one more big save in him and if Liverpool or Manchester United do Sunderland a favour elsewhere, then the dream is right there. One game. One chance. One final push. Let’s get carried away. Sunderland and their fans have earned it.
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