Sunderland finished the season strongly to make it their best campaign since 2000/01
Régis Le Bris admitted he didn’t know what to expect; that it was a game that would tell him much about his dressing room and what lay ahead.
After Sunderland pushed past 40 points and all-but-secured their Premier League status for another campaign, Le Bris had brought players and staff together to reset and refocus. He was keen not to set a specific new target, whether that be Europe, 50 points or anything else. His fear was that a couple of poor results, especially at a time when injuries were piling up, could render such a goal almost immediately unattainable and that the campaign would drift away as a result.
Instead he spoke about standards, about how Sunderland finished this season would define how they started the next. He also spoke about the club’s goal to establish themselves as a regular top-ten side in the Premier League and so in short, he urged them to show they were a serious team not content purely with beating the drop.
After an insipid FA Cup exit at Port Vale and a frustrating home defeat to Brighton, a patched-up Sunderland side went to Newcastle United and produced one of the great derby wins. A campaign better than anyone could have dared imagine scaled new heights as Chris Rigg and Luke O’Nien celebrated with the travelling fans high up in the St James’ Park stands, a moment that would be the highlight of almost any modern Sunderland season you could mention. Le Bris wondered if after the three-week break that followed, his team would switch off even if subconsciously.
When Spurs came to the Stadium of Light in April, he got his answer. It was not a vintage display by any stretch of the imagination, a tight game settled by a deflected Nordi Mukiele strike. Most of the focus was on a Spurs side spiralling towards relegation, but Le Bris took belief from the attitude of his players. They had produced a committed and controlled performance that reassured him they didn’t see this campaign as ending with Brian Brobbey’s strike on Tyneside. He needn’t have worried.
As Le Bris would later explain, relegation had never been discussed at any stage of the campaign in the Sunderland dressing room. There was humility and a recognition that Sunderland had to be at their absolute best each and every week to get points at this level, but there was also a steely ambition. Le Bris would repeatedly tell the media 40 points was the target, but this was more about managing external expectations than keeping his player’s feet on the ground.
What happened after Sunderland passed 40 points was perhaps no great surprise, then. Club insiders said that while publicly players refused to be drawn into talking about Europe, internally there was absolutely no doubt. Granit Xhaka and Nordi Mukiele in particular led the charge, both adamant that Sunderland had to target the opportunity in front of them. They were aware and interested in Sunderland’s history, in what pushing on to the top half and into the qualification places would mean for a club for so long starved of such success. Players used to regularly competing at that level were never going to settle for safety, and the attitude was infectious. Luke O’Nien would later say that this was the moment Sunderland became a top team as standards and intensity went up another gear when for many promoted clubs it could easily have eased off - especially with a World Cup on the horizon.
It underlined the importance of Xhaka’s arrival last summer. Both in what he brought to the club and the calibre of player he convinced to join in those closing weeks of the window, he had helped turn Sunderland from a team with a puncher’s chance of staying up to a serious Premier League outfit.
To get there, though, they would have to overcome a major bump in the road.
Though a 4-3 defeat to Aston Villa was an enthralling game with many positives for Sunderland, Le Bris was concerned. He had sensed a slight drop in defensive standards, something he felt could be fatal for a side that had punched above their weight through their intensity, spirit and organisation across the campaign. His worst fears were confirmed a week later when Sunderland unravelled at home to a buoyant Nottingham Forest side, shipping four goals in a dismal first-half.
When the dust settled and Le Bris was able to sit down and analyse the game in detail on his giant screen deep in the Academy of Light, he felt that the root of the issue had actually been tactical rather than mental. He didn’t see complacency or lack of effort, but instead too much risk and a lack of balance. Sunderland had overcommitted and played into the visitor’s hands - Le Bris had wanted to improve the attacking threat and creativity of his side but it hadn’t worked.
When Sunderland arrived at Wolves a week later, he would make the changes that set the stage for the surge in form that dragged the club to seventh. Chemsdine Talbi, so unfortunate to lose his place after the derby win, was restored to his preferred left-wing role and Enzo Le Fée moved to the number ten role Le Bris had for so long been hoping to deploy him in more regularly. They were two very attacking changes but to maintain the balance, Trai Hume returned to the right wing. It was a divisive move but one that would be entirely vindicated in the weeks that followed.
Le Bris’s vision was undone when Dan Ballard was shown a controversial red card at Molineux but Sunderland dug in for a point and the tactical template for the final three games had been established. Crucially, the changes meant that Le Bris had energy and invention from his bench with Habib Diarra, Wilson Isidor and Chris Rigg playing key roles in the final stretch.
While there may be some debate about Man Utd and Chelsea’s motivation levels, these were big performances for Sunderland and Le Bris. Sunderland feel they showed their internal ambition in going for Europe, but also have set out their stall for next season as a team that can control the ball and be less reliant on set pieces. Since that win against Newcastle, Sunderland have tracked at two points per game and crucially, nothing in their performance data suggests they have been particularly fortunate to do so.
Sunderland are well aware of the dangers of second-season syndrome and the clear message internally that Premier League stability is the absolute priority, but the last few weeks have shown the level of ambition behind the scenes: this isn’t a team happy to make up the numbers in any competition.
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