A trip to Anfield isn’t something that a promoted team would usually relish. But the Sunderland class of 2025/26 is a different breed, and they returned from the trip to Merseyside with a point courtesy of a 1-1 draw – in fact, the Black Cats led with just ten minutes left to play. It means that after 14 rounds of action in the Premier League this term, Sunderland sit sixth in the table – level on points with fifth-placed Crystal Palace. They’re just a point off the automatic Champions League qualification places.
Given how sides that have ascended from the Championship have struggled in recent years, you perhaps won’t be surprised to learn that this is the best start from a team promoted to the Premier League in 20 years. So whose record have Regis le Bris’ overtaken… and how have the Black Cats done it?
Start as You Mean to Go On
TWO-NIL DOWN. THREE-TWO UP.
GET INNNNNNNN 😍🤯 pic.twitter.com/41FyaDIT3p
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) November 29, 2025
Sunderland have become only the eighth promoted team in Premier League history to have won 20 points or more from their opening 13 games of the season. And that’s generally been a good omen, with 62% of that group of eight going on to finish in the top half of the league table. Perhaps most crucially, 0% of them were subsequently relegated that same season.
Wigan Athletic
The last time a promoted side claimed 20 or more points from their opening 13 games came courtesy of Wigan Athletic in 2005/06, who had won 25 points by that point. The Latics went on to finish tenth in an outstanding campaign, even reaching the final of the League Cup.
Blackburn Rovers
Blackburn Rovers, during the Premier League’s inaugural 1992/93 campaign, had 26 points after 13 games. Their super-rich owner, Jack Walker, had bankrolled the signing of Alan Shearer that summer, who went on to finish as the club’s top goalscorer before, of course, plundering more EPL goals than any other player in history. And, lest we forget, they were crowned Premier League champions just two years later.
Sunderland
Two promoted teams jointly hold the record for more points from their opening 13 games of the season; a mark that stands at 27. Ironically, Sunderland are one of those sides…
That was their 1999/00 vintage, who were hammered 0-4 by Chelsea on the opening day of the campaign. But the Black Cats rallied, going on to that fast start before finishing the season in seventh place – with striker Kevin Phillips winning the European Golden Shoe award.
Nottingham Forest
Joining Sunderland on 27 points after 13 games were Nottingham Forest in 1994/95. Manager Frank Clark, ably assisted by the goals of Stan Collmore, guided the Tricky Trees to the fourth round of both the League Cup and FA Cup, but it was their exploits in the Premier League that most captured the attention.
They continued their fast start throughout the campaign, ultimately finishing in third place – the joint highest best finish from a promoted team in the Premier League. In the space of a single season, Forest had gone from the Championship to qualifying for the UEFA Cup; the precursor to the Europa League. Will Sunderland go on to match – or better – these fine performances from promoted teams?
Are Sunderland the Best Promoted Team Ever?
Although we’ve learned that other promoted teams have earned more points than the 2025/26 Sunderland vintage from their opening 13 games, there’s added context at play.
The best performances from sides that ascended from the second tier have generally come in the ‘pre money’ era of the Premier League. That’s not to say that lots of cash hasn’t always been sloshing about in the EPL, but these were in the days before oil barons, sheikhs, private equity and international investment brands had taken ownership of some of English football’s biggest clubs.
Money Invested
In today’s Premier League micro climate, the haves have more and the have nots are left eating their dust. That’s not to say that Sunderland haven’t benefitted from overseas investment of their own. Kiril Louis-Dreyfus, the club’s majority shareholder, comes from serious money, which he has ploughed into the north east outfit. In fact, in the summer of 2025, he went stratospheric, splashing £163 million on new players – the ninth highest outlay in the Premier League and, for context, four times that of Fulham and six times that of Aston Villa.
But these weren’t household names being signed. Le Bris brought in a whopping 26 new players, so the average cost per player was just £7.1 million; Liverpool, who Sunderland dominated in their Anfield date, had an average cost-per-player average of £28 million. So the Black Cats’ success has come in an age of monied spending from the established Premier League forces; which, in theory, makes it more difficult for plucky underdogs to break through.
Without the perk of a crystal ball, we don’t know how high Sunderland will finish in the Premier League this term. But their early season performances, set against the backdrop of competitive and financial obstacles that promoted sides face, put them amongst the finest to have ascended to the top flight.
Le Bris Ball
🗣️ RLB: ‘We are building our confidence through our different experiences. We’ll face one of the toughest challenges this season.’
Our Head Coach looks ahead to #MCISUN 🗞️⤵️
— Sunderland AFC (@SunderlandAFC) December 5, 2025
Defend well and take your chances when they come along: it’s not a bad template for footballing success. Whether that’s the design of Regis Le Bris only he knows, but the stats certainly suggest that’s not far from the truth. His Sunderland rank 19th in the Premier League for Non-Penalty Expected Goals (npxG). In layman’s terms, that means there’s only one team (Burnley) worse than them at creating good goalscoring chances from open play positions.
Therefore, the Black Cats’ attacking success is down to lethal finishing (they’ve scored 18 times from 10.8 npxG), good fortune, small sample size variance… or a combination of all three. What isn’t up for debate is Sunderland’s relative defensive excellence. They have yielded 17.6 npxG, which approximately makes them a mid-table team when it comes to averting clear goalscoring opportunities for their opponents.
Much of that is down to the excellent organisational capabilities of Le Bris, whose tenure at former club Lorient ended in such acrimony that he had to have armed guards stationed outside his home to protect against rioting supporters. At Sunderland, you suspect, the Frenchman can sleep much easier…
