Leeds United: Pascal Struijk drops surprise claim about Sunderland | OneFootball

Regis Le Bris has taken his side to the top of the Championship table.

Leeds United centre-back Pascal Struijk has said that he has been surprised by Sunderland's impressive start to the season.

We're now more than a quarter of the way through the 2024/25 Championship season, amazingly, and the league is starting to come together in a more typical fashion.

A few games into a new campaign, you can't really get a proper sense of who are the best, worst and middling teams in the division by looking at the league table. Now, though, the body of work has expanded, and we are left with a league that Sunderland sits top of.

The Black Cats, who ended last season in 16th position, a season on from making the play-offs in their first term back in the second tier, have almost unquestionably been the strongest and most consistent team; the points tallies will tell you that.

Regis Le Bris - their new head coach - has turned them from being a frustrating push-over for the supporters to watch into an efficient machine that is churning out results.

They are undefeated at the Stadium of Light this season. That record was nearly snapped when Leeds went to Wearside and really put Sunderland to the sword. They led 2-1 with a matter of seconds to go in the game until Illan Meslier made one of the most horrendous goalkeeping blunders you will see this season.

The scores were levelled and Sunderland held onto their unbeaten home record.

Struijk played every minute of that game and yet, despite the host's below-par performance on the night, he has been impressed, and shocked, by Sunderland.

Pascal Struijk's surprise at Sunderland's hot start

The Dutch defender that has captained Leeds in Ethan Amapadu's absence has said that he has been "surprised" by how well the Black Cats have done so far this season.

The Championship is a league which is known for often throwing up unexpected results. After last season, Leeds certainly know that, and Struijk isn't looking too far ahead yet.

He told BBC West Yorkshire Sport: "We always have high expectations. I am bit surprised by Sunderland, by the way. They have started really well.

"But this league is long and is very tough. It is about how we deal with the challenges throughout the season, like injuries at the moment and how we play through them and how we get success as a team."

Sunderland's high levels have shocked most people

A team that just finished 16th in the league, lost its star attacker and appointed a freshly relegated head coach is rarely going to be anyone's pick to finish high in the league.

That combination of factors will often lead to a potentially volatile cocktail. What Le Bris has served up since arriving in the northeast has been the footballing equivalent of a Boulevardier.

They have been crisp, sharp, potent in all the ways that you'd want them to be; just utterly impressive.

Maybe those who picked against Sunderland shouldn't be so surprised. After all, this is a squad containing some of the league's best young talent. But even with their brilliance, few expected the Black Cats to leap out of the blocks in the way that they have.