If ever a sequence of events summed up the 2025-26 version of Sunderland AFC, it was our winner at Stamford Bridge.

The tenacity of Lutsharel Geertruida to run the full length of the pitch to create the space for goalscorer Chemsdine Talbi, the strength, patience and quality of Brian Brobbey to pick out the pass for Talbi, and the ice in the veins of the Moroccan to slot home the decisive goal.

It also underpinned the bravery that was evident throughout Saturday’s encounter. Geertrudia could have been forgiven for catching a breather after clearing his lines. But in stoppage time away to the ‘Champions of the World’, we showed more determination than Chelsea to try and win the game.

Although the hosts overwhelmingly dominated possession, this was far from a smash and grab job. Our press was expertly coordinated throughout, we caused the Blues problems on transition and we were a constant nuisance from set pieces. In fact, I would argue that we bullied them at times.

It is also a big tick in Regis Le Bris’s ever growing plus column, that all three of the goals’ main protagonists have, for different reasons, all been fringe players in recent weeks.

It is difficult enough to drill your principles into a starting XI with such a high turnover of players, but to get such a squad-wide identity embedded so quickly is nothing short of extraordinary. #TilTheEnd has gone from genius marketing to the very heartbeat of the football club.

This momentous victory also went a long way to debunking the idea of Sunderland’s lofty status being solely down to the lack of quality opposition we have faced so far, but let’s face it, that narrative was always complete poppycock wasn’t it?

I write this a little over an hour after Aston Villa’s 1-0 win over Manchester City to secure their fourth Premier League win in a row, which is notoriously easy to achieve of course; and Brentford have just recorded back to back wins, and have won three of their last four outings.

Flippancy aside, I don’t think you would find a single Sunderland fan who would say we haven’t had a more favourable run of fixtures.

Indeed, facing a shambolic West Ham United on the opening day helped us get off to a good start but if we are forced to consider context to justify being cautious in our praise we must consider it from a Wearside perspective as well.

A sizeable minority who seem determined to find excuses to downplay our success point to us playing the majority of our opponents at favourable times, but nobody seems to question if these fixtures came at a good time for Sunderland.

I make the following point, not to have a personal dig at Jensen Seelt, but we started the season with him operating at centre back. Seelt made just one appearance for the lads in the entirety of the 24/25 campaign after a long injury lay-off and had made fewer than 20 appearances in red and white overall.

Suddenly, he was being asked to deputise in the Premier League in such a high stakes fixture and for all of our recruitment, we went into the game with three out of our four defenders having little to no exposure to top level football.

It is certainly inaccurate to say that things have been handed to Sunderland on a plate, we have already gained seven points from losing positions, one of which was gained after going a goal and a man down to Aston Villa and we have scored four goals in second half added time since the start of the season.

We have also been without our record signing for the past four games, from which we have accumulated three wins and on Saturday our Rolls-Royce of a centre half, Omar Alderete was ruled out with concussion.

Despite the calibre of manager in the Premier League arguably never being higher, in recent years football has become less about great men of history and much more about processes and recruitment.

Obviously, it helps to have a good head coach, but simply having an elite level manager is no longer a guarantee of success and nothing has exemplified that more than SAFC since we got promoted back in May.

Naturally, things were already in good shape behind the scenes, otherwise we would not have gone up in the first place, but seemingly from the moment Tommy Watson secured our top flight status, this has been turbo charged.

From the arrival of Director of Football Florent Ghisolfi, and a flurry of new high quality coaches, combined with new analysis personnel, everything has been geared towards securing long term Premier League football.

Our recruitment strategy has been very high risk in places but with that has come very high rewards.

Robin Roefs is a prime example of this, he was a goalkeeper with just one senior season under his belt prior to signing but is already playing far beyond his years.

Alderete may be an experienced player, but he played in a Getafe side who by the standard of La Liga are known for playing disruptive, safety-first football for whom possession was barely even a consideration. Consequently, his passing stats would have left question marks over his ability to make the adaptation to Premier League life. But we took the gamble, and so far it is paying dividends.

Granit Xhaka may not have been a gamble in terms of his ability and leadership qualities but it is rare in the modern era for clubs to entirely write off a players’ sell on value when making a signing.

However, we took the calculated risk that if he played a key part in our survival we would more than make back his transfer fee in money we would accumulate from survival and the boost it would give the club.

Xhaka has also been instrumental in the profile of players we have been able to attract and has essentially been a manager on the pitch.

The profile of players we have signed has also been incredibly important, although as fans we understandably had mere survival down as our sole aim for the season, the likes of Nordi Mukele, Geertruida and Xhaka would scoff at the mere suggestion of that being their level of operation.

The mentality of the dressing room is clear for all to see, and created a togetherness that I cannot remember feeling as a Sunderland fan.

If I’m honest I could sit and wax lyrical about every single player we’ve signed and why bringing them in was a masterstroke.

With the foundations in place, Regis Le Bris has been given a great platform for his undoubted ability as a coach.

To implement his tactical blueprint so quickly is nothing short of miraculous and he has shown a great blend of man management skills, tactical flexibility and even his harshest critic would concede that his substitutions have been outstanding.

It’s almost as if we are just a really well run football club, with an excellent head coach, and backroom team who have recruited really smartly.

It would be easy for members of the squad who have hardly played this season to be sulking, but it was fantastic to see the substitutes right in amongst the scenes of celebration.

Is this sustainable? Quite frankly, who cares?

On Halloween Night, 2017 we sacked Simon Grayson with a Pumpkin Emoji still in our Twitter handle as we sleepwalked to successive relegations.

As Halloween approaches in 2025, Granit Xhaka is the captain of our football club, and we sit fourth in the League, above both Manchester clubs, Liverpool, Chelsea, and the State of Saudi Arabia.

So binge watch the scenes from the weekend, watch all our goals back on a loop, and raise a glass to Tommy Watson, without whom none of this would have been possible.