Sunderland will be bottom on Christmas day and history shows that is bad news indeed.
It is fair to say that the first 16 games of the Premier League season have not been good ones for Sunderland.
After going without a win in their first ten games of the campaign, the Black Cats had to wait until the beginning of November for their first victory.
They followed that up with wins over Hull City and Leicester City to make things look slightly less bleak.
Sunderland manager David Moyes
However, defeats to both Swansea City and Chelsea in their last two games mean they sit bottom of the table.
With four points separating them from survival, it is a position that David Moyes and his men will occupy over Christmas and history shows that is very bad news indeed.
As the table from Oulala (below) shows, only three teams in the history of the Premier League have managed to survive after sitting bottom of the table at Christmas.
That means of the 25 teams to have been bottom in that period, only 12% have managed to avoid the drop.
Of course, Sunderland have experience of doing so, having rallied back in 2013/14 to end up finishing 14th. The rise of Leicester City, who did the same the following season, should also give them confidence.
It goes to show, though, that David Moyes has a big task on his hands and history is already working against him.
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