Sunderland are finally back in the Premier League.
After a long wait for promotion and spells in League One just a few years ago, the Mackems are back in the big time for the first time since 2016/17.
In today’s play-off final at Wembley, Sunderland went 1-0 down to Sheffield United early on and lost centre-back Luke O’Nien to injury in the opening minutes.
However, late goals from Eliezer Mayenda and Tom Watson – who scored in injury time – completed the comeback, putting all eyes on June 18th (9am) for our Tyne and Wear derby dates when the fixtures for next season are announced.
With Leeds and Burnley promoted via automatic promotion, Sunderland have now completed next season’s Premier League line up after Southampton, Leicester and Ipswich were all relegated.
1. Arsenal
2. Aston Villa
3. Bournemouth
4. Brentford
5. Brighton
6. Burnley
7. Chelsea
8. Crystal Palace
9. Everton
10. Fulham
11. Leeds
12. Liverpool
13. Man City
14. Man Utd
15. Newcastle
16. Nottingham Forest
17. Sunderland
18. Tottenham
19. West Ham
20. Wolves
Sunderland’s return may be great for the North East, but I fully expect the gulf in class to show when they come back to the Premier League.
We battered them at the Stadium of Light last January and we’ve only improved since then, with the gap between the Premier League and Championship only becoming wider since Sunderland were last in the top flight.
Bring it on!