Who saw this coming? Exactly one year ago Sunderland won the Championship playoffs and were installed as everybody’s relegation favourites. Régis Le Bris and his wonderfully resilient side harboured a rather different vision and they executed it so well they have finished seventh, securing a lucrative passport to the Europa League. No one is patronising Sunderland now.
This fully merited win against a Chelsea side whose own European ambitions were shredded along the way was in many ways emblematic of their season. It was a day when the second-tier old boys upstaged the Club World Cup holders, when Enzo Le Fée eclipsed Chelsea’s World Cup-winning Enzo Fernández and when the excellent Granit Xhaka ruled central midfield. What price Le Bris for manager of the year?
