SNSUN

Swansea now one point behind us...

Leeds staying up will show you can survive in the Premier League after promotion, sure, but Sunderland have showed that you can thrive with the right signings.

Possibly, although we were so poor last season that would be quite an achievement - but I hope SR have learned their lesson. We have a few players out of contract at the end of the season or loans that may or may not be signed up. We will need a fairly big rebuild anyway - I'd rather go up and rebuild with, he says hopefully, Premier League quality players than rebuild with Championship players for another promotion push. And if we come down then hopefully we'd be in a better position than this season after we signed Championship quality players for our Premier League campaign of questionable talents. We'd have extra parachute payments too which would please SR no end. I didn't go as I was working but I don't think any Saints fan regrets winning the play-off final against Leeds, and if we were to go up this season, that would have to happen again. I'd take another play-off win even if it meant relegation next season.

Just realised Aribo can't play against us. That's a shame. 😁 Harry Winks the obvious replacement then.

Ooh those sausages look banging.

Not outplay as such - we could be crap and keep picking up wins. 😊 But yes we would need better results than the teams above us, and probably boost our goal difference to boot. While they have a superior points total, there's nothing to say Hull or Millwall might go on a terrible run yet either. We may think it's 9 or 10 teams fighting for 6th place, but if their form dips it could be 11 or 12 teams fighting for 4th-6th place. It's unlikely but if everyone is fighting to pick up results to get into the play-offs, they could easily see us in their wing mirrors. Of the teams ahead of us I think Stoke and Watford finish below us anyway. I still think we finish top half but short of the play-offs. I'd rather be pleasantly surprised if we got there than disappointed we didn't.

Yeah me too really but Matty Fernandes is running the show - they love him KUMB. Burnley and Wolves are down, it's one place for a few teams but that's where it gets interesting as, bar Leeds, who are very good at home and picking up good results, you could say the others are "too good to go down" on paper. Forest have some good players but aren't getting results - they could be a victim of buggering about with managerial changes with Dyche shortly to follow. West Ham have a few excellent players but have recruited quite well in the January window. Leeds squad isn't the best but they are picking up results and Elland Road is a fortress. Palace could be in trouble - too many player sales and they spent big money on a misfiring striker. Spurs should, sadly, survive with the quality they have. If it's not West Ham, Forest or Leeds for the drop, I genuinely think Palace could be in trouble. They're only 6 clear of the zone and their form is awful.

Transfermrkt said he has a Hamstring injury. Do they know something we don't?

I've had a look at all our promotion contenders Forums from Swansea up to Wrexham (because I'm at work on a Sunday morning and it's dead here) and in those that have Championship or Play-off chase threads, there's not one mention of us (Apart from Watford's for obvious reasons). So it seems we are sneaking up the table unnoticed. Fine by me. A couple of the forums are worried about Birmingham the most it seems. Watford seem to think they're sinking towards the bottom half, Derby and QPR seem to be surprised at where they are and have doubts they can do it. I guess any of us in the play-off race probably look at the table, see the few points required and think "we can do it". The difference is, on paper at least, we still have one of the better squads in the division. It's now up to Tonda to deliver the wins we need. Another way to look at it is that following our last 4 games, we probably only need another 7 points to avoid relegation. 😁😎

They think their full backs are awful - Thomas and Ricardo Pereira. If they play, we need Leo and Tom to rip them apart. Apparently Lascelles had a decent debut but he's no spring chicken. Aribo in midfield speaks for itself. They won't have Decordova-Reid as he was sent off who is one of their better players. Their strikers are also shite. Basically if we can keep Mavididi and Fatawu quiet (Bree and Welington need to be as good as they were yesterday) then we should be able to get a result. Reading their forum they think they should be building their team around their younger players, Monga, the recently loaned Mukasa, Kristiansen and Aluko. It will be interesting to see how many of them play on Tuesday. As for us, I'd start with an unchanged team again providing Downes is fit (Charles if not). That means Stewart starts again with Cyle to come off the bench later on. A point isn't enough against them if we want to get to that play-off spot really - they are in disarray so this is one of the remaining fixtures we should be looking to get three points from. BUT we have to play better offensively than yesterday.

Good to see we're scouting young talent but I suspect he'll be at Valenciennes next season.

Funnily enough Baz always got better when Alex Mc was in goal for us too!

The ever reliable AI says he scored after one minute. So that's probably accurate.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15446441/amp/Arsenal-won-Premier-League-title-declare-Paddy-Power-Bookies-pay-bets-write-season-beat-Sunderland-nine-points-clear.html Can't help but think this is premature but it's their money. Arsenal probably will win the League but there's still a lot of football still to go.

The last 3 (for a sample size) 6th place finishers finished on 69, 73 and 68 points. So we possibly need 25 to 30 points to finish 6th. 9 to 10-ish wins from 15 games, possibly 8 with some draws. I think it's beyond us unless we remain consistent and keep finding ways to win. Consistency and dropping points have been our achilles heel this season. I think only Wrexham and Derby have dropped more points than us from winning positions, both play off hopefuls.

😎 5-2 win vs Leicester next. 😜

9 teams (minimum) going for one play off place really. Could be an interesting end to the season.

Maybe if we start playing better than today. We probably have the strongest squad but other teams are performing better. It's a results business though and we're having a decent start to 2026.

Wrexham losing. Race is on!

It's the only one I could think of at the time!

Nope I looked that one up, 8 minutes.

Possibly his last ever chance to prove to people he can play in the Prem.

Yes but it has been helped because we resorted to 4 at the back IMO. We've fannyed around with 3 CBs so long and yet it's with 2 CBs that we're keeping clean sheets. I also think Peretz instead of Baz has helped maybe fill them with bit more confidence even if Peretz does give me the odd heart stopping moment. Just a shame we wasted so much of the season.

You got to feel for Ross, finally gets himself fit and another striker comes along and gets the glory. But still that's two options up front to play the way we want to play. Now the providers behind them need to do more to supply. I thought Edozie looked good when he came on. Defence were good too, another clean sheet. I hope Flynn isn't out long but we have got some strength in depth now in midfield.

Poor game but a win is a win.