Promoted clubs are supposed to spend their first season learning the exchange rate: Championship goals convert to Premier League near-misses, Championship points to honourable defeats. Sunderland never accepted the conversion. Fifth at the winter break, with the division’s fourth-best defence, they are the table’s most interesting anomaly.

The method is unfashionable. They do not press high; they press precisely. They concede territory and refuse chances — opponents average the second-lowest expected goals per shot in the league against them, which is what happens when a back line never breaks shape to chase the ball.

Sustainable, or a half-season of coin flips?

The sceptic’s case writes itself: overperformance against expected goals at both ends, a fixture list that softened their autumn, a thin squad one injury crisis from the bottom half. All true. But the underlying shape — chance suppression, set-piece security, lead protection — is the kind that travels.

History says promoted teams fade in March. Sunderland’s season will be defined by whether the method survives contact with fatigue. The table, for now, is enjoying the argument.