Wise Men Say: Could this be the best Sunderland team ever to get relegated?

We all do our best to stay positive every week, but there’s got to come a time where we also have to be realistic.

Sunday’s result was definitely disappointing, but it didn’t hurt anywhere near as much as the previous three games.

The more I think about it, the more I believe that the dropped points against Southampton, Newcastle, and West Brom, could well be the points that see us get relegated into the Championship.

If we had won those games, we’d now be sitting on 33 points and everything would be looking a lot healthier going into the run in.

We just can’t get over the finish line in important games.

Let’s just predict that 38 points would guarantee survival based on the fact that we stayed up with 38 points last season, and 38 points the season before.

After the weekend’s games, Crystal Palace sit on 37 points, Norwich, 31, Sunderland, 27, and Newcastle, 25.

We now need 11 points from the 18 that are available. That’s three wins and two draws, or four wins, or two wins and five draws.

We’ve only won six games out of 32 all season.

It takes looking at these numbers in detail like this to realise the scale of the task we’ve set ourselves. It’s massive.

The thing that bugs me the most is the fact that since February, this football team have shown that they’re more than capable of holding their own in the Premier League.

The January transfer window has proved to be a massive success, and credit to Big Sam for getting the signings spot on and making Sunderland a force to be reckoned with.

Could this be the best team to ever get relegated?

If we don’t beat Norwich next week then I think we’re 100% doomed.

A few games have been labelled as ‘must win’ this season so far, but this one just takes that statement to a whole new level.

The stakes involved in the game are unbelievably high. If we fall seven points behind it’s surely impossible for us to catch Norwich.

This time next week we’ll all either be feeling optimistic, or curling up into a ball and crying into our quilt covers.

I for one don’t have a good feeling for the clash at Carrow Road. I hope I’m wrong!