December may well be the advent of a month of crackers the Mackems

Is it the Big Sam Bounce or have Sunderland finally turned a corner? Three wins, one a thumping of our bitter rivals (be after six in a row it has become a guaranteed three points twice a season) two on the bounce again Palace fresh of a win at Anfield and a Stoke side that were not conceding goals have brought a spring into the step of us Sunderland fans.

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Article by Jon Guy

However we are realists and a quick look at the fixture list for the rest of the month Arsenal, Manchester City, Chelsea, and Liverpool await with a home game against Watford.

Six weeks ago we would have looked at those fixtures with sheer dread and from the relegation zone, but now we can enter the Christmas period with a little more confidence.

First up a trip to the Emirates, the venue where we sealed our stay in the premier league last year. Arsenal stuttered to a 1-1ndraw against Norwich and more worryingly for the Gunners is the seemingly endless injury list which now includes their best player Sanchez. Throw in the fact they face a must win by two clear goals game in Greece next week and it will be interesting to see what Wenger does. As I said on the E-football podcast earlier this week Arsenal have a pool of brilliant young players and it may well be that one will get a chance on Saturday and could grab it.

However, Sunderland will be compact, well organised and will be a real threat from set pieces given the lack of height in the Arsenal ranks other than their skipper and centre back Per Mertesaker.

We must have a chance of a point and maybe steal three if we can show some ambition late on.

Watford at home we have to win as simple as that and then it is back to the capital for a trip to Stamford Bridge. We inflicted the first home league defeat of Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea career but we have also be thumped a few time in the past several years.

But they have had their worst start to a league campaign since they underwent the Roman revolution so they not seen as invincible at the Bridge this term.

Manchester City are rightly favourites to win the title and while they have stuttered a few times they have a squad of superstars. However, Sunderland have been a bogie team certainly at the Stadium of Light so we can’t write off another 1-0 win.

In terms of Liverpool on December 30th it is a case of which Liverpool team turns up but they have shown huge improvement under the manager who describes himself as “The Normal One”.

Maybe we can look at what would have been a nightmare month with a bit of confidence, but we are talking about Sunderland and as every Mackem knows it’s never good to predict what will happen.

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