It long had the air of a seismic game for two clubs. It was shaping up as the day that Hull City could send Sunderland down and, in the process, take a sizeable stride towards survival themselves.
Yet, while Hull contributed, not least with Eldin Jakupovic’s penalty save against Southampton, Sunderland’s innate ineptitude ensured they were relegated a week ago, long before Saturday’s trip to the KCOM Stadium.
It has not escaped attention that Sunderland had two more points than Hull when Marco Silva was appointed. Now the deficit stands at an irretrievable 13.
To observe David Moyes’s demeanour and hear his downbeat words, there has been a grim inevitability to Sunderland’s demotion. Hull suggest it was avoidable. They also prove it was completely deserved.
So instead of staring into one abyss, Sunderland are looking into another.
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Read more
■ Marco Silva: Rescue mission of Hull City edges closer to completion
■ Predictions: Wins for Spurs and Chelsea keeps gap at four points
■ Team Talk: Tottenham hot on Chelsea's heels but is it too late?
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The Championship can be an unforgiving league, especially for those unaccustomed to it. Aston Villa went down 12 months ago, have spent more than £80 million (Dh380m) and sit 12th. Sunderland, £150m in debt, surely cannot afford such outlay.
Continuity is often important to rebound at the first time of asking, yet Sunderland require a clearout.
Are their injury-prone players suited to a physically demanding division featuring 46 games of relentless grind? Are those imbued in a losing culture capable of conjuring at least 25 wins?
Relegation can have restorative properties when it serves to cleanse, to wash away the problems. Instead, Sunderland should be stripped of two whose reputations have not been stained this season, goalkeeper Jordan Pickford and striker Jermain Defoe, who will be permitted to leave on a free transfer.
Should centre-back Lamine Kone and midfielder Didier Ndong, two of the few with resale value, go they will need the spine of a new side.
Sunderland manager David Moyes has cut a tired figure for much of the season. Lee Smith / Reuters
They have three on-loan players, in Adnan Janzuaj, Jason Denayer and Javier Manquillo.
Seven more, largely aged players are out of contract — Victor Anichebe, George Honeyman, Jan Kirchhoff, Sebastian Larsson, Joleon Lescott, John O’Shea and Steven Pienaar.
They offer proof of the short-termism at a club that had maintained a pretence of long-term planning.
Collectively, Sunderland could be shorn of men who made 259 Premier League appearances this season. At least an £83m wage bill will be slashed, and not just because of relegation clauses.
But it should create a void, leaving only a skeleton squad lacking goals, flair, leadership, solidity or balance. Try forging a promotion-winning group from that. If it fashions an opportunity to reshape the club, that requires vision, purposeful leadership and a capacity to galvanise.
Striker Jermain Defoe is sure to leave Sunderland when his contract expires at the end of the season. Scott Heppell / AFP
Moyes has cut a tired figure, rounding up old allies from Everton and Manchester United in the least inspired of recruitment drives. While owner Ellis Short spoke of implementing stability when appointing the Scot, fans are starting to turn on a manager with a 15 per cent win rate.
Moyes has pledged to remain but his stock is damaged. He has no period of grace next season. Yet with it increasingly implausible any other Premier League club would hire him, he faced an unenviable decision, damned if he stayed and damned if he went.
So it is for Sunderland, too. Their recent history has felt a series of least worst scenarios.
Staying up merely postponed a worse outcome, until that eventually arrived. This has actually been the second-longest spell in the top flight in their history but despite spring surges to safety, Tyne-Wear derby wins and a series of victories over elite sides, it has nevertheless been a largely joyless decade. Yet it had a kind of certainty.
That is gone now. Sunderland find themselves peering into the unknown, wondering what fresh horrors it offers.
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