Survival looks a ridiculous possibility now and that's just mental. With our game in hand and goal difference, we'll be favourites to beat the drop. Now, the cynic in me would suggest that we've been here before and messed it up. That's very much the Sunderland way. I fully expect us to go to Old Trafford and win, then lose our last two home games and stay up by the virtue of goal difference.
This week's podcast should be pretty bright, which is nice. We've been relatively gloomy up until the Chelsea result and had all but written off our chances of survival. We mentioned just using the games to give potential Championship squad members a chance of acclimatising to first team football. How wrong we were. To be fair though, I think the players had shown enough, or not enough as the case may be, to give most people the opportunity to write them off. We'd all been let down far too often. I still fully expect most of them to leave at the end of the season, regardless. I think that's still a good thing, too.
So on this week's edition of Wise Men Say we'll spend a lot of time talking about how close my 4-1 prediciton was to becoming a reality. Not really. But we will talk about how nice it was to see the team perform in a pressure game with an excellent home backing. We'll hope for more of the same next Wednesday night. We'll preview the Manchester United game. I fancy us to get something there, too.
We'll be joined in the studio by BBC Radio Newcastle's Sunderland commentator, Nick Barnes. Our SportsByte panel make their second appearance of the season in the form of Sam Lightle and Michael Lough. Give youth a chance, and all that jazz.
This week's edition of Wise Men Say will be available as usual on Friday, via Roker Report. If you already Subscribe on iTunes or Soundcloud, it'll be there too.
So join us for fun. I'll try not to sound like I've "got forks sticking in my legs" this week - A genuine review of my vocal prowess.
Enjoy!