Sunderland's Stadium of Light switch you might have missed ahead of Chelsea win
Sunderland got back to winning ways against Chelsea at the Stadium of Light on Sunday
Sunday's game against Chelsea felt like an early crossroads moment in Sunderland's season, and so little wonder they were prepared to try just about anything to get back to winning ways.
Including, you may have noticed, reversing the dugout switch from the beginning of the season. In a change to the way things have always been since the Stadium of Light opened, Régis Le Bris, his staff and players moved to the dugout on the right of the tunnel. Though the reasons were never explained on the record, it did make a good degree of sense. Sunderland try wherever possible to kick towards the vocal Roker End in the second half, and so it is perhaps a little odd to warm up and be based on the opposite side. Perhaps the coaching staff had also grown a little bit tired of the opposition bench being able to bend the ear of the assistant referee running that line more easily.
Whether the switch came from the players who wanted to return to their old routine, or was the brainchild of Florent Ghisolfi whose hands-on approach is well known, is not known.
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The decision seems unlikely to have come from Le Bris, who it will not surprise you to hear isn't one for superstition. Once asked in a press conference if he has any particular matchday rituals, the physiology and biomechanics graduate gave a simple one-word answer: No.
His diagnosis of Sunderland's return to winning ways was somewhat simpler: "I spoke in the dressing room just before the beginning of the game, it's not about tactics. This team has a strong structure and can manage different situations in and out possession, it's more about passion and hunger. Sometimes you maybe can hesitate: do we need to press like this or like this? Intensity can create solutions often. Now we have to do it and I think this was a great first step this afternoon."
Not the reason Sunderland won then, and yet you can be sure that there will be no switch back after the upcoming international break.
Perhaps the most familiar strand of analysis from fans and onlookers alike was this win felt like the good days of last season again. Sunderland were hungry, nasty to play against, hard to break down and a threat on the counter. Le Bris and his players spoke after the game about the 40-point target, which felt like a concerted effort to get back to basics a little behind the scenes and to try and recreate the underdog mentality that worked so well right across the board last season.
Perhaps the more familiar scenery played just a little part in rediscovering a little bit of the old magic that had helped to sweep Chelsea away and lead Sunderland into the Europa League just six months previous.
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