Sunderland suffered a 3-1 home defeat against Premier League rivals Fulham on Sunday afternoon.
Sunderland suffered major disappointment on Sunday as Fulham punished the Black Cats for a below-par display to become only the second side to collect maximum points from a visit to the Stadium of Light this season.
Two goals from Mexico international Raul Jimenez and one from former Arsenal and Everton winger Alex Iwobi helped Marco Silva’s side to a 3-1 win after Enzo Le Fee’s penalty had offered some hope Sunderland could produce a comeback that failed to materialise.
For Sunderland, the result means Regis Le Bris’ men have collected just two wins in their last ten games and now lie in twelfth place in the Premier League table - although their European hopes are still alive as they are sitting just four points adrift of the top seven. However, there is no doubt the Black Cats have to return to winning ways as soon as possible to regain some of the momentum built up by an overwhelmingly positive first half of the season.
An away day double header at Bournemouth and Leeds United will offer a sizeable challenge for Le Bris and his players as they look to continue pushing for a top half finish at least - but where are the Black Cats predicted to finish in this season’s Premier League? We take a look at the latest predicted final Premier League table provided by the stats experts at Opta.
Opta’s updated predicted final Premier League table
Nilson Anguloplaceholder image
Nilson Angulo | Getty Images
1st: Arsenal - 81.62 points
2nd: Manchester City - 75.81 points
3rd: Aston Villa - 69.61 points
4th: Liverpool - 64.32 points
5th: Manchester United - 62.39 points
6th: Chelsea - 61.25 points
7th: Brentford - 55.90 points
8th: Bournemouth - 53.61 points
9th: Newcastle United - 52.68 points
10th: Everton - 51.79 points
11th: Fulham - 51.62 points
12th: Brighton and Hove Albion - 49.88 points
13th: Sunderland - 47.70 points
14th: Crystal Palace - 47.56 points
15th: Leeds United - 45.28 points
16th: Tottenham Hotspur - 43.39 points
17th: Nottingham Forest - 39.65 points
18th: West Ham United - 35.84 points
19th: Burnley - 29.07 points
20th: Wolverhampton Wanderers - 19.52 points
What did Regis Le Bris say after Sunderland 1-3 Fulham?
Regis Le Bris, Sunderland head coach.placeholder image
Regis Le Bris, Sunderland head coach. | Getty Images
The Black Cats boss said: “You can be in the top six and you can have a long sequence of poor results, I think we are now in this part of the journey. Resilience, togetherness, consistency, standards - It's always the same values we need and we won't give up. Obviously it's a bit harder, but the journey is always defined like that by key moments. They were negative today. We'll try to find a way to change the situation.
“At the moment, we express less quality with the ball. We are a bit less dominant against direct play as well for the second balls. The momentum can shift sometimes just with one situation because both teams are ready to impose their ideas after those moments. Today we were just okay, not dominant, especially at home. We left an opportunity for the opponent to express their qualities.”
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