Having lost their promotion-clinching manager Alex Neil to Stoke City in late August, Sunderland fans may have been fearing the worst despite finally ending their four-year stay in League One via a win against Wycombe Wanderers in the playoff final in May.
However, Tony Mowbray – whose five-year reign at Blackburn Rovers came to an end during the summer – has steadied the ship spectacularly, taking the Black Cats to within one point of the playoff positions ahead of this weekend’s action.
They remained in the FA Cup with an incredible comeback away to Shrewsbury Town last time out, too, with injury-time strikes from Ross Stewart and Luke O’Nien bringing them back from the death after Matthew Pennington had scored what looked to be the winner for the hosts when he broke the deadlock in the 81st minute.
Sunderland will travel to West London to take on Fulham in the fourth round in two weeks’ time, but in the meantime Mowbray will be throwing everything at home matches against Swansea and their local rivals Middlesbrough in order to move back into the top six places.
Swansea, meanwhile, have won just one of their last 10 league matches, sliding down to 15th in the table in the process after making a strong start to the season under Russell Martin.
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The former Milton Keynes Dons boss has received plenty of praise for his style of football since taking over the Swans in the summer of 2021, but results have remained patchy throughout his tenure and questions are beginning to be asked regarding the 37-year-old’s substance.
However, when everything comes together, Swansea are undoubtedly one of the most attractive teams to watch across England’s top four leagues, as was most recently evident during their stunning 4-0 victory against Watford.
Should they manage to beat Bristol City in a replay next week after drawing 1-1 at Ashton Gate, they will face either West Bromwich Albion or Chesterfield in the fourth round of the FA Cup, but Martin is likely to be more focused on getting his side closer to the playoff positions across the coming weeks.
