The Black Cats face Boro in the Tees-Wear derby on Saturday afternoon.
With five wins in their previous six matches, Sunderland are proving that their run to the Championship play-offs last season was no fluke – even without some of their star players.
It has been a case of no Amad Diallo, no problem for the Black Cats, who were unable to get the Ivorian attacker back on loan from Man United, but Tony Mowbray has been able to get by just fine without him.
A new set of talents were brought in over the summer months, mostly on a permanent basis, and everything just seems to be clicking for the Wearsiders currently, and there’s a feeling that they haven’t even gotten out of second gear yet in some matches.
Jack Clarke is of course the current star man with seven goals to his name in just 10 appearances, and his next target that he wants to score against is Middlesbrough.
Sunderland take on their North East rivals in a Tees-Wear derby clash on Saturday afternoon at 12:30pm, and it is an entirely different prospect to what it would have been a few weeks ago.
After six matches of the Championship campaign, Boro had still not won a match and had lost five of their first six fixtures.
A draw against fellow early strugglers Sheffield Wednesday has helped to turn the tide though, with Michael Carrick’s side winning their next three matches to start their climb up the table, with wins coming over Southampton, Watford and Cardiff City.
It has been a slow start for Carrick’s new-look side having lost talisman Chuba Akpom in August, but they now need to be feared by the rest of the division – Sunderland included.
Which Middlesbrough players should Sunderland be worried about facing?
Sunderland fans will be high on confidence heading into their North East derby clash, but despite their relatively poor start to the campaign, Boro still hold some threats.
And FLW’s Black Cats fan pundit Jack Austwicke believes that quite a few of Carrick’s squad need to be feared ahead of the lunchtime clash at the Stadium of Light.
“Truthfully if you asked me four weeks ago, I’d have said no-one – I wouldn’t have feared a player in their team, but obviously derby day is different,” Jack said when speaking to futballupdate.
“I’ve seen the goal that Latte Lath (scored against Cardiff) – very, very fast striker, so he could cause us problems, Riley McGree has been getting on the scoresheet a lot and I like him as a midfielder as well, definitely a good player and he was good when we played them in January.
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