Sunderland are making supercomputer’s pre-season prediction look foolish, but fans will demand more

Add as preferred source on Google

Sunderland have been the major success story of this Premier League season, and they’re now getting a far more friendly forecast from Opta’s supercomputer.

After earning a shock promotion via the Championship play-offs, it was not surprising for Sunderland to be tipped as relegation fodder before the Premier League campaign began.

The Black Cats spent heavily in the summer, with Regis Le Bris getting 15 new signings to drastically improve the quality of his squad.

Five wins out of nine at the start of this season have seen the Mackems rise to fourth in the league table and relegation now seems unlikely for Sunderland. It’s safe to say, that was not the case just a few weeks ago, and Opta’s supercomputer has changed its tune quickly.

• READ MORE: Three strikers Sunderland must consider for January include Spurs struggler and Aston Villa target

Supercomputer tipped Sunderland to finish rock bottom

There is no denying Sunderland have been unbelievable so far this season, especially considering they had less time to prepare than any other team due to their play-off journey.

At the start of the season, Opta said the following about Sunderland’s chances: “Sunderland are the only team who do not win the Premier League title in any of the supercomputer’s 10,000 simulations. Never mind, there’s always next season.”

They previously predicted the Black Cats would land at the bottom of the table come May, with a 34.1% chance of finishing 20th. Sunderland were given just a 9.2% chance of finishing 17th and surviving relegation, and only a 1% chance of finishing as high as tenth.

Now, Sunderland are predicted to finish in 14th place with an expected points tally of 46 after 38 games. They may still only have a 0.02% chance of winning the league title but their chances of relegation have dropped dramatically to 9.03%.

While relegation is still a distinct possibility, the supercomputer has clearly got a much better read of how well-equipped Sunderland are for this season and they now have a fighting chance of landing in midtable… or even higher.

• READ MORE: Three Sunderland stars named in Premier League team of the week as John Terry comparison made

Sunderland fans will be dreaming of best-ever finish in Premier League

Before the season started, any Black Cats fan would have snapped your hand off at the offer of a 14th place finish. However, after the win against Chelsea, Sunderland have shown they can match the big teams in this division.

There will be Sunderland fans out there now that want more than to simply survive this season. And who can blame them?

Their team is full of top quality players, the manager is tactically astute, and the fanbase is absolutely massive. This is a football club that deserves some glory and very much deserves to be in the top flight.

If they can keep up this momentum, there’s every chance Sunderland will become the most successful promoted team of all time, at least in terms of points accrued.

At the very least, you’d be hoping this Sunderland team can surpass the 58 points the club achieved in 1999/00, when they secured their best-ever Premier League finish of 7th place. Finishing in the top seven would be huge, but it’s a dream many Sunderland fans will be daring to dream right now.