Man, sometimes you just need to settle a stupid argument, right? That’s exactly how I wasted three hours of my life yesterday trying to nail down exactly where Sunderland and Burnley are sitting right now. Not because I’m some super fan, but because my mate, Dave, sent me a truly confusing text about a long-forgotten office pool. He swore Sunderland was doing better than Burnley, which I knew smelled like total crap, but I had to prove it. I had to pull the actual data.
The Initial, Clumsy Dive
The first thing I did, naturally, was fire up the laptop and slammed “Sunderland vs Burnley standings” into the search bar. I figured the mighty algorithms would just spit out the answer. But nope. That’s never how it works when you need specific, niche football data that spans different league tiers. All I got back was a bunch of historical fixtures, a confusing mix of news articles from when they last played in a cup competition, and outdated league tables from three years ago.
I realized immediately I was making the rookie mistake: searching for direct “standings” between two teams who probably weren’t in the same division right now. You can’t compare apples and oranges in a single table unless they are literally playing each other next week, or in some random cup draw.
So, I had to pivot my strategy. I needed to nail down which league each team was actually competing in this season. You’d think that’s easy, but I swear every other year one of them is hopping up or down the table.
Separating the Teams and Identifying the Tiers
My first task was to verify Burnley’s current status. I went straight to the source, or at least, the most reliable aggregate site I know. I typed in “Burnley FC current league position”. The results were instantaneous and clear. They are, as I suspected, currently campaigning in the Premier League. The top tier. Fine. Now I had the baseline.
Then I had to check Sunderland. I ran the same targeted search: “Sunderland AFC current league position”. Sure enough, the results confirmed they are holding strong in the EFL Championship. Second tier. This was crucial. It confirmed my initial suspicion that Dave was talking nonsense because you cannot simply say who is “doing better” when one team is trying to win the Championship and the other is fighting relegation or mid-table mediocrity in the PL.
Now that I had the two separate tables, I had to dig into the specific metrics.
Detailed Practice: Extracting the Data Points
I decided the cleanest way to document this for Dave (and for my own record keeping, since I document everything) was to pull the exact position, points, and goals difference for both teams right up to yesterday’s closing fixtures.
Here is what the record-pulling process looked like:
- I scrolled down the Premier League table, past the usual suspects like City and Arsenal, until I located Burnley F.C..
- I noted their position: 19th. That’s deep in the relegation zone, basically fighting for their lives.
- I recorded the total points: 20 points after 30 matches played.
- I moved over to the Championship standings, a much longer scroll, let me tell you.
- I searched specifically for Sunderland AFC, who I remember had a decent start but then hit a rough patch.
- I identified their position: 13th. Solid mid-table, safe from the drop but nowhere near the playoffs.
- I jotted down their total points: 51 points after 37 matches played.
The numbers were jarringly different, mainly because they’ve played different numbers of games, but the overall league health was obvious. Burnley is struggling hard in the top league; Sunderland is just coasting in the second.
The Result and Settling the Score
So, the answer to “Where are the standings?” is simple: they don’t have joint standings. But I had the concrete data to disprove Dave’s crazy claim that Sunderland was somehow performing better globally. How did I convey this complicated truth?
I compiled the data into a single screenshot for clarity, one half PL, one half Championship. I then drafted the most overly complex text message I could, explaining the nuances of tier separation, points per game average, and the inherent difficulty in comparing a relegation battle team to a mid-table Championship side. I sent it off and immediately muted the thread.
Why did I go through all this trouble? Why didn’t I just say “You’re wrong, check Google”?
Because this whole ridiculous exercise stemmed from a terrible bet I made years ago during a corporate retreat. I bet Dave that whichever team finished lowest in their respective league tier between the two of them, I would have to buy the beer for the next five times we met up. Back then, they were both in the Championship and it was a simple comparison. Now, with the league separation, the bet is suddenly massively complex and expensive. I’m trying to argue that since Burnley is fighting for their existence and Sunderland is safely mid-table, Burnley is technically performing “worse” relative to their division’s high stakes.
This data pull wasn’t about football; it was about saving my wallet. I needed that hard proof that Burnley’s 19th place finish is the true disaster, regardless of Sunderland’s comfortable 13th spot. That’s why I meticulously logged and recorded every step, because if I don’t win this argument, I’m bankrupt. Now I just wait for Dave’s inevitable, completely illogical counter-argument. But I have the records, and records always win, eventually.