The Tyne-Wear derby comes around again with a familiar sense of deja vu.
Alan Pardew has been named manager of the month for November for the second season running, but Newcastle United fans were upset again after a 4-1 league defeat to Arsenal last Saturday and a 4-0 defeat at Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup.
As ever at Newcastle, it seems any glimmer of progress is illusory, any good result overshadowed by the looming monstrosity that is Mike Ashley’s ownership of the club.
Sunderland, meanwhile, are averaging a point a game, as they did last season.
This time they have done it with as little drama as possible, drawing 10 of their 16 games – putting them well on course to break Aston Villa’s record of 17 draws in an English Premier League season.
The sense of stagnation at the number of draws has rather put in perspective the absurdity of last season’s great escape, when they drew at Manchester City, then beat Chelsea, Cardiff City, Manchester United and West Bromwich Albion to move from a position of almost certain doom to survival over the course of five improbable games.
As the years of failure go on for both clubs – no domestic trophy in 41 years for Sunderland, in 59 years for Newcastle – and their sense grows that local pride is all there is to play for, the derbies take on an enhanced importance.
At least part of the dissatisfaction around Newcastle stems from the fact that they are on a streak of losing three derbies in a row for the first time in nine decades.
It is parochial, but in the globalised world of modern football, it is also a reassuring reminder of the place clubs have in the centre of their communities.
sports@thenational.ae
Follow us on Twitter @SprtNationalUAE