Newcastle United star Anthony Gordon is happy for Sunderland to take all the pressure heading into Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby.
In some circles, the Black Cats may be seen as favourites ahead of a first Sunderland vs Newcastle United game in nine years in the Premier League.
They are unbeaten at home and have enjoyed a fine campaign thus far, while Newcastle remain frustratingly inconsistent.
Though losing at the Stadium of Light would be little short of a disaster for Eddie Howe, there is some credence to the idea that the hosts are in a stronger position heading into the game.
Few would have imagined that being the case before a ball was kicked this season, although Gordon is happy at the idea of being slight underdogs.
Anthony Gordon says the pressure is on Sunderland ahead of Tyne-Wear derby
Gordon, who has recently hit a run of fine form for Newcastle, was speaking to The Sun after Wednesday’s draw with Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League.
Asked about the theory that Sunderland are in fact favourites for the clash, Gordon said: “We’ll take that. All the pressure’s on them, then, isn’t it? No problem for us.
“We know it’s a really important game, especially for the fans. It’s a massive, massive derby game.
“They’ve waited years for this game. We know it’s going to be intense. It’s going to be a war, that’s how derbies go.”
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris actually thinks Newcastle United are favourites
Naturally, Black Cats boss Regis Le Bris took a different view on Friday.
Indeed, the Sunderland manager thinks Newcastle are favourites for the Tyne-Wear derby.
“We’ll be the underdogs,” he said during his pre-match press conference. “We have to have this mindset, if we have this mindset that the game will be easier because we’ve had a good start, it will be a problem.”
In many ways, it doesn’t really matter who the underdogs are.
It is difficult to frame Newcastle as a genuine underdog given all their success of late, while Sunderland are relatively new to the Premier League.
Context, however, is important. This has been a hard season for Newcastle, while they also had to play in midweek.
Still, it really won’t matter who are favourites for the game by the time a ball is actually kicked.
Form, as they say, can go out the window when derby day rolls around.