In their return to the top flight after last term’s Championship play-off victory, Sunderland’s summer investment was a statement of intent, sufficiently equipping them to buck the trend and secure their Premier League status for another season.
Still, they have wildly exceeded the expectations pinned on them at the start of the campaign, since the preceding pack of newly-promoted sides were overwhelmed by the Premier League’s established clubs, despite their best efforts.
After quite comfortably staying up, their attention swiftly turned towards the inviting prospect of a European adventure under Regis Le Bris.
With Brighton losing to Manchester United and Brentford drawing at Anfield on the final day, Sunderland capitalised on the opportunity to leapfrog them and emerged victorious in the chase for Europa League football.
Trai Hume’s guided volley set Sunderland on their way to doing the double over Chelsea, with Brian Brobbey then forcing Malo Gusto’s own-goal at the Stadium of Light.
The hosts were the latest beneficiaries of the ill-discipline damaging the Blues in the second half when Wesley Fofana received a second yellow five minutes after Cole Palmer halved the deficit.
One year to the day since Tommy Watson’s last-gasp winner sparked bedlam in the Sunderland end at Wembley, and following a strenuous eight years to climb back to the promised land, Sunderland successfully rewrote the script for what promoted sides can achieve with the right plan.
From start to finish: How Sunderland claimed historic spot in Europe
Starting well by putting points on the board was imperative for Sunderland to stabilise their confidence and avoid contemplating a managerial switch early on, and they did just that.
The Stadium of Light became an impregnable fortress where Sunderland kept their unbeaten record at home intact all the way until Liverpool narrowly claimed the full spoils in February.
The finishing Premier League top three of Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United were all held to draws when they travelled to the North East.
33 points accumulated at home overall gave them a healthy boost, considering the necessary target for survival was identified as 40 points.
Two victories over local rivals Newcastle United in the league, reigniting the fervent derby after a decade of waiting, were firm markers of Sunderland’s trajectory and huge doses of vigour to continue galvanising them.
Paramount to their survival and eventual strides to compete higher up the table, rather than looking over their shoulders, was how they overcame inevitable difficulties.
Head coach Le Bris lost six players to the African Cup of Nations in December and into January, which was the most of any team in Europe’s major leagues.
During that spell, his side won just one league game, despite notching a series of commendable draws, including against Manchester City when Dennis Cirkin was installed to fill in at left-back.
Once the African contingent returned to domestic duties, Sunderland were hit with a major blow when captain Granit Xhaka sustained an ankle injury and missed four games, in which they lost three times.
Any longer without their experienced lynchpin would not have cost them dearly, if the fixation was simply on staying afloat. The Black Cats had already amassed a large points haul.
Fortunately, the supporting cast was reunited with their leader heading into the final few months of the season to hunt for something different.
Although Sunderland were flirting with a possible European charge once Brobbey’s stoppage time winner sunk Newcastle on their own patch before the March international break, to pull it off would require greater consistency and reliance on their competitors to drop points.
An uncharacteristic 5-0 drubbing at home to then relegation-threatened Nottingham Forest last month suggested Le Bris’ men were wilting once the initial remit of reaching 40 points was ticked off.
The draw at already relegated Wolves also made for grim reading, and their hopes for Europe certainly seemed to be fading at that stage.
A more promising performance against Manchester United yielded a single point, while they completely dented Everton’s pursuit for Europe thanks to their second half comeback.
Against a Chelsea side that had been trapped in a wretched run of form, Sunderland outclassed their European rivals with 21 shots and a 2-1 win on the final day.
They had snatched a Europa League spot, surpassing one of the members of the league’s financial oligopoly.
The Sunderland faithful will be dusting off their passports to embark on potential trips in the Europa League to Juventus, Bayer Leverkusen or Marseille, depending on how the league phase draw turns out.
To do so, they will likely opt to hop aboard flights on Thursday nights next season using the airport of their neighbours, close to where Eddie Howe led Newcastle to a bottom half finish.
Summer recruitment complementing masterful Regis Le Bris
The club invested heavily into providing Le Bris with the tools for avoiding the drop zone, signing 15 players last summer to mostly overhaul the existing core.
Albeit, Trai Hume, Wilson Isidor and Dan Ballard survived the transfer spree as Le Bris maintained faith that they would step up to meet the requirements of the top flight.
Sunderland chiefs made Enzo Le Fée’s acquisition from Roma permanent shortly after the play-off final triumph, and that was the beginning of a seismic fulfillment of their prerogative to revamp the squad.
Habib Diarra became the club’s record signing, although the Senegalese midfielder was sidelined for months with injury at the start of the campaign.
His midfield partner, Noah Sadiki, has supplied a forceful engine with buccaneering runs and industry, and Sunderland pinpointed the then 20-year-old from his successes in Belgium.
Omar Alderete, Nordi Mukiele, Reinildo Mandava, and Lutsharel Geetruida all transformed the back line, arriving from established clubs and often with lessons from European experience in their back pockets.
Goalkeeper Anthony Patterson was loaned out to Millwall to make room for Robin Roefs, who is one of the breakout goalkeepers this season.
Helping Sunderland to concede the fourth lowest goals this season behind Brighton, Manchester City and Arsenal, the Dutchman initially caught the eye from his work in the Eredivisie, and perhaps earned greater appeal from being in the shop window at the Under 21’s European Championships.
Sunderland left it late to complete the jigsaw on deadline day when they lured Brobbey away from his boyhood club Ajax.
Leading the line physically and instrumentally, he scored seven league goals this season, with the majority of those goals coming at decisive or late moments.
The key to unlocking sustained glory, however, was when the club landed Xhaka for an initial £13 million fee from Bayer Leverkusen.
This has been a bargain financially, if it didn’t already seem that way back in July, as Xhaka had three years left on his contract with the German side.
Named as captain upon walking through the door, the 33-year-old had familiarity with the rigours of English football and helped turn the heads of former teammates to join him at what he deemed to be a culture and setup on Wearside with a very high ceiling.
The Switzerland international has added layers to his style to supplement those quite inherent leadership qualities, thanks to the tail end of his time at Arsenal and cementing an integral place in Bayer Leverkusen’s invincibles team managed by now Chelsea-bound Xabi Alonso.
As Liverpool splashed the cash to send an ominous message that they were favourites to defend their crown, Arne Slot’s men fell to defeat on twelve occasions this season, which is the same amount as Sunderland, staggeringly.
Sunderland assembled a group of individuals gelling effortlessly from vast backgrounds, many of whom were entering the uncharted territory of the Premier League.
Le Bris developed his own bold way of thinking to tackle the mountain of disrupting the supposed gulf between England’s top two divisions, uniting his assets to share a common dogged energy.
The solution to staying up was not always about scoring the most goals, but remaining defensively solid and suffocating opponents with persistent rhythm in games.
That approach and purposeful selections to form an effective squad made the journey to survival not at all beyond the realms of possibility, like some suggested.
European qualification, on the other hand, is so surreal that it is now barely believable.
As Luke O’Nien put it when reflecting on his long path to this peak moment on social media, “Europa League was never the dream.”
This achievement is one that will be etched into the club’s history.
Now, those in charge of the Black Cats are tasked to build on the foundations laid out in last summer’s recruitment and to utilise the attractive destination the Sunderland project has become.
Aside from Arsenal’s monumental climb to the summit after 22 years, the story that stands head and shoulders above all others this season is how Sunderland secured European football, propelling themselves out of the depths of League One, where they were just four years ago.