Phil Smith: What Sunderland and Régis Le Bris mustn't do after rare off-day in brutally tough division
Sunderland fell to just their third defeat of the Premier League campaign at Craven Cottage on Saturday
My hot take from a weekend reporting on the Premier League: It's really tough.
Not the most original or insightful take, I'll grant you, but one that I think is honestly worth restating as we pick through the weeds of what was undoubtedly a sub-par performance at Craven Cottage on Saturday. To be becoming away underwhelmed and disappointed not just with the result but with the general display is more than fair because Sunderland just weren't at it, but it should also serve as a reminder of just how profound their overachievement has been through the opening months of the campaign.
The first few weeks of the season had borne a theory that the general level of the division had dipped this season, and that the newly-promoted teams were being presented with a rare opportunity to capitalise. That remains the case to an extent: Wolves are adrift to the point where even a relatively significant spike in their form under new head coach Rob Edwards will probably be enough to bridge the gap to safety. Generally speaking, though, the Premier League's established order is biting back.
Nottingham Forest had a shambolic start to the campaign off the pitch but their squad is absolutely stacked with talent and the switch to Sean Dyche has put them firmly back on track. West Ham United have their fair share of issues but the appointment of Nuno always looked likely to spark an upturn in form and so it is proving. Neither are out of the woods by any stretch of the imagination, and yet it feels ominous that both have now climbed out of the relegation zone. It is going to be difficult in the extreme for Leeds United and Burnley to keep pace with them over the next 26 games, and especially because both will likely invest again in the January window to stave off the threat of the drop.
Burnley played pretty well against Chelsea on Saturday, competitive on home turf and pushing Enzo Maresca's side all the way. They lost 2-0. Leeds United had a half-time lead against Aston Villa but couldn't hold on, with some signs that Elland Road is beginning to lose belief in head coach Daniel Farke. They are now facing a run of fixtures as brutal as Sunderland's (albeit with now AFCON headaches), but with their slim buffer to the bottom three gone.
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All of which to say is that Sunderland's position, seventh in the division but most importantly eight points clear of the drop, is a remarkably good one. Much was made of who far behind the top two the Black Cats finished last season and it was always a little over the top given how close they had been for the majority of the campaign, but it's still true. Their squad had been assembled at an absolute fraction of the cost of every other team in the division, and that still remains broadly the case even in the aftermath of their major summer spend. Their current position is one you could scarcely have dreamed of in the days that followed Tommy Watson's goal at Wembley, and that shouldn't be forgotten as we move through the weeks ahead.
Sunderland's defeat at Fulham only served to underline the strength of the division at large. The hosts went into the game just one point above the relegation zone, after what had widely ben accepted as a poor start to the season following a poor summer transfer window. And yet they demonstrated throughout the contest that they are very well-coached side (were Marco Silva managing in almost any other European league, it would surely be for a team in continental competition at least) with absolutely stacks of individual quality. Even when that was not enough to take the lead through the opening hour of the fixture, they were able to turn to genuine game-changing attacking quality on their bench. They looked a team that looked on the day tactically and technically ahead of Sunderland, which of course is exactly what they are having now spent four years back in the Premier League with a record points haul last season to their name.
Sunderland's summer recruitment drive brought significant quality and experience into the club, and the expectation that comes with that is no bad thing. There've been times this season where the reaction inside the dressing room to a performance and result has been more negative than the external perception, underlining the ambition within this group of players. There's little doubt that they'll be reflecting on Saturday's game as one where they've let a real opportunity pass them by. But for all Sunderland's excellent start, there have been some signs that there could some difficult days along the way. They have defensively been an excellent side and they have used the adrenaline of last season's remarkable finish well, particularly on home turf where they remain unbeaten. Going forward, though, they are still a team in the early stages of their development and that's reflected in the fact that they are one of the weaker sides in the division in just about every key attacking metric you can look at. Defend set pieces well, as Fulham did, and you go along to negating Sunderland's threat. Saturday's game was a reminder that if this Sunderland side is not top drawer defensively, they will likely be punished.
The point here is that while a certain amount of freshening things up this weekend is surely inevitable, this is no time to be ripping up the formula that has so far allowed Sunderland to outperform so many newly-promoted teams in recent years. Sure, they need to be better going forward and it was not not to feel a sense of waste that Eliezer Mayenda and Simon Adingra got just ten minutes between them on a day where the team created little. These away days are tough assignments all the same, and to release the handbrake entirely would be a massive mistake at this stage in Sunderland’s development. Can Sunderland be a little bolder in certain moments? Maybe, but especially away from home the balance so far this season has been pretty good. The evidence so far this season is that Saturday's poor performance is very much an exception rather than the rule, and there should be no sense of panic moving forward. Keep the defensive solidity, add more attacking threat over time, and Sunderland will be OK this season. That, ultimately, remains the primary aim.
There's every reason to think that Sunderland will continue to pick up points given their general resilience and defensive strength but even if this defeat does herald the start of a new, more tricky chapter in the campaign, the Black Cats are well ahead of schedule.