STADIUM OF FIGHT

Battling Black Cats beating odds by running b******s off!

- BY IAN MURTAGH

THAT'S chapter one done and dusted and it's all gone wonderfully well for Sunderland.

Now for the hard bit - but don't discount another batch of critic-confounding results for Regis Le Bris' impressive Premier League new boys.

The Black Cats themselves acknowledged that the fixture list had been kind to them over the opening weeks of the season, but few would have bet on them profiting so fulsomely.

Indeed, those who wrote them off before a ball was kicked were all set to use the opening games as ammunition for their doom-laden predictions.

With games against Chelsea, Everton and Arsenal coming up, the degree of difficulty is cranking up, but the football world is having to radically rethink its assessment of the fourth-best side in the Championship last term.

Because the way Le Bris has them set up and with outstanding defensive reinforcements in Nordi Mukiele and Omar Alderete, they look a formidable unit at the back.