Sunderland claimed a surprising point at the Etihad stadium last season and it proved to be very crucial in the club staying in the Premier League.

In fact, they have had a very good record against reigning Premier League champions Manchester City both at home and away from the Stadium of Light.

There have been a number of managerial changes in the Premier League club, Sunderland in the last few years.

Steve Bruce, Martin O’Neill, Paolo Di Canio and Gus Poyet are all of the managers or head coaches that have taken charge of the squad of Sunderland since March of 2013.

Each one of these managers have arrived to the Stadium of Light with different methods and philosophies but one thing that some of them have in common is in their plan of changing the squad and attempting to increase the quality of the team by signing a large amount of players.

Sunderland slipped closer to the bottom of the table after a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal during the weekend. Even though the score looks much better than the 8-0 thrashing that they suffered last week at the hands of Southampton, it still is no better when it comes to getting them out of relegation trouble. The pressure on manager Gus Poyet, who managed an incredible escape from relegation last season, is continuing to rise. The Uruguayan has indirectly pleaded for patience from the club.

Tottenham opened their Europa League campaign with a 0-0 draw against Partizan Belgrade. Even though the match witnessed a lot of high tension due to resist chants from the home supporters, it was a positive result for the club nonetheless. It was also the opinion of manager Mauricio Pochettino, who appears to be facing a tough time at the start of his Tottenham career. After starting the season with consecutive victories in the league and the League Cup, Tottenham find themselves without a win in the last three matches.

Thomas Vermaelen has finally made his way away from the Emirates Stadium and his new destination is Camp Nou. He has been bought by Barcelona for 15 million Pounds and he is all set to feature in La Liga for the first time ever in his career.
Vermaelen’s departure to Barcelona is something that has happened all of a sudden. The Belgian centre back was initially linked to Manchester United, but, the deal between the Red Devils and Arsenal couldn’t get finalized due to some reason and after that, Blaugrana cashed in.

Sunderland have been sweating over the fitness of striker Jozy Altidore in the last few weeks. The US International suffered a hamstring injury while on international duty. Altidore may not have been utilised much by the US national team manager Klinsmann at the World Cup 2014, but he was a key player in the team nonetheless. Altidore came on the back of his first season in the Premier League. Many expected him to struggle despite having scored a lot of goals in Dutch football and it was the case. He managed a very poor return of just 2 goals in the 38 appearances.

Jack Colback’s previous season with Sunderland saw him making 32 league appearances for Sunderland but now that his contract is just about to expire, rumors have been spreading around in relation to the future of the English midfielder.

Newcastle United, West Ham United and Aston Villa are some of the Premier League clubs which are interested in signing him and West Ham has even offered the midfielder around €50,000 a week in order to bring him into the club which is more than triple the amount of money that he is currently earning.

Sunderland manager Gus Poyet has stated that he now believes in miracles after his team managed to achieve safety in the Premier league despite being bottom of the table on Christmas Day. Only one team has managed to achieve this feat in the history of the Premier League. Sunderland will now be joining West Brom as the only two sides that have managed this achievement. Sunderland’s achievements is more remarkable considering that they had matches against title rivals Manchester City and Chelsea in the last few matches of the season.

Sunderland finished at the 17th spot in the previous Premier League season as they barely managed to drift away from the bottom relegation zone but this time around might just see them being relegated as even the coach of the squad believes that they will need a miracle in order to avoid the bottom drop spots.

"I'm very honest and I know where I am. If you look at the table and the games we have got left to win, we need a miracle. We need something unique’’.

Sunderland was knocked out of the FA Cup and the Carling Cup after losing against Hull City and Manchester City which gives Gus Poyet and his team the chance and time to solely focus on the Premier League where they currently are struggling as they located at the bottom of the standings and with only 9 matches remaining, the next results will decide if they get relegated or not.

The Premier League club has announced their financial state and registered a €23 million loss and it will get even worse for the club if they are unable to survive in the Premier League for the upcoming season.