The Championship boss once linked with Sunderland who could have a vital say in promotion battle this week

Football is, as they say, a funny old game. Back in September, when Sunderland made the dauntingly long trip south to face Plymouth Argyle in a relatively nondescript Championship clash, the visitors were still unbeaten in the league and the hosts were still yet to win under new manager Wayne Rooney. By the end of the afternoon, neither of those things were true any more.

The Pilgrims took all three points from the Black Cats courtesy of an own goal, a penalty, and a stoppage time winner in a dramatic 3-2 victory, and in the process, threw a spanner into Regis Le Bris’ works for the very first time since his arrival on Wearside.

A lot has changed since that meeting at Home Park, and a lot has stayed the same too. Sunderland are still in the hunt for an automatic promotion place, while Argyle are still up to their necks in a relegation battle, granted, but Rooney has been thoroughly ousted and the man who has replaced him in the dugout is a certain Miron Muslic, who was one of several names linked with the vacancy at the Stadium of Light prior to Le Bris’ appointment.

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And now, the Austrian and his newly-inherited Argyle squad could once again be about to play a significant role in Sunderland’s promotion hopes over the coming days. With just five points separating first and fourth in the table, and the Black Cats trailing third-placed Burnley by two points, Plymouth find themselves squaring up to an unenviable week during which they will face both Scott Parker’s side and Le Bris’ men in quick succession.

First, they will host Burnley at Home Park on Wednesday night, then they will make the monstrous journey north to play Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on Saturday afternoon. A surprise result in either of those matches, just like the one they sprang on the Black Cats earlier in the season, could have profound consequences for whichever side is scuttled by it.

Of course, if Plymouth are to compete against Burnley or Sunderland, they will have to give a much better account of themselves than they did during their 1-0 defeat to QPR over the weekend. Speaking after the final whistle in that match, Muslic told BBC Radio Devon: "I'm very disappointed because simply we lacked the desire to win the duels. Those are the basics.

"We had some injury doubts the last couple of days, but I don't think this was the problem and had to adapt the system because you cannot play with a back three if you only have two centre-backs. But I don't think this was the problem. We just lacked physicality and the difference between our players and the physicality of QPR was just immense in everything - defensively, offensively, set-plays, throw-ins. We lacked that desire to win duels and if you can't win duels, you don't have a chance."

But as Sunderland learnt the hard way back in September, just because the form book suggests that a contest is going to go a certain way, it doesn’t mean that the reality of it will pan out accordingly. For both Burnley and the Black Cats, then, Plymouth represent a notable banana skin this week. Maybe neither will slip. Maybe both will. Regardless of what the table might have you believe, anything could happen. Because football is, as they say, a funny old game.