In some respects you have to hold a certain admiration for Sunderland's apparent commitment to having more or less the same season, year after year. The pattern goes: early season struggle, the manager leaves, his replacement saves them with varying degrees of panic, then it all starts again the following campaign.
There was a slight variation this year when Sam Allardyce left before the season started, to take the England job, but despite that departure from the usual script, the early signs suggest more struggle and drudgery -- particularly after losing 2-1 to Middlesbrough on Sunday, a newly promoted team and a local rival, their second defeat from the first two games of the season.