Premier League preview No15: Sunderland

Guardian writers' prediction: 8th (This is not Barry Glendenning's prediction, but the average of our writers' tips)

Last season's position: 10th

Odds against winning the title: 1,000-1

While most Sunderland fans would probably have settled for a 10th place finish this time last year, their Premier League campaign ended up fizzling out into something of a shoulder shrug. Nine points garnered in eight matches against the top four sides showed Steve Bruce's side have no problems motivating themselves when it comes to mixing it with the big boys. Seven points garnered in eight matches against the bottom four showed they have no end of shortcomings when it comes to mixing it with the small ones.

Clearly, there are psychological issues to be addressed. Two seasons ago Sunderland celebrated a home win over Arsenal by embarking on an inexplicably risible run of 14 top-flight matches without a victory in which they took seven points from a possible 42. Last season abject humiliation at the hands of Newcastle was somewhat redeemed by a shock rout of Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. But where Sunderland are concerned the threat of another heroically inexplicable mid-season slump is never too far away.

More optimistic Mackems are entitled to argue that the impromptu two-and-a-half-month mid-season break when Sunderland's players downed tools earlier this year was at least shorter than that of the previous campaign, encompassing nine matches, of which Sunderland contrived to lose eight and draw one. And considering they were beaten by teams as ordinary as Birmingham, West Bromwich Albion, Everton, Stoke, Liverpool and Tottenham, there is clearly plenty of room for improvement this time.

Holding on to only 10 of the eminently winnable points they carelessly frittered away last season would have elevated them to seventh in the table, a position they last achieved when Peter Reid was effing and jeffing the instructions from the home dug-out at the Stadium of Light.

As an aside, while some have identified the January sale of the prolific finisher Darren Bent to Aston Villa as the most likely reason for Sunderland's poor run of form, a quick visit to Anorak Corner reveals they scored 19 goals in 15 Premier League matches after his departure, exactly the same number they bagged in the 18 games in which he featured while still there.

Earlier this summer Steve Bruce's attempts to propel Sunderland further up the table prompted much sniggering, when it became apparent his battle plan apparently revolved around looting as many Manchester United fringe players as he could get his hands on. In the end he was forced to settle for Wes Brown and John O'Shea (Darron Gibson apparently remains delusional), reliable utility defenders with no shortage of trophy-winning experience and over 500 appearances for United between them.

Yes, reliable. While there are obvious doubts about the former's ability, not to mention his ability to stay out of the treatment room, it is worth noting that in 2007-08 he played 38 times for his club, making the right-back berth his own as Manchester United became champions of England and Europe. All going well, this Anglo-Irish accord with its origins at Old Trafford should add much needed steel to a brittle Mackem backbone that could conceivably end up comprised of four former United players – Phil Bardsley, Brown, O'Shea and Kieran Richardson – when injuries and suspensions take their toll.

In midfield Bruce appears, on paper at least, to have dealt shrewdly, feeding hungrily from the carcasses of last season's Premier League dead. The Welsh international David Vaughan has been brought in on a free transfer from Blackpool, where he demonstrated a positively Xavi-esque pass completion rate of 87% and the ability to play in the centre or on the left.

The goal-scoring midfielder Craig Gardner (£6m) and dead-ball specialist Sebastian Larsson (free) have been salvaged from the wreckage of Birmingham City's relegation dogfight and, while it would be a gross dereliction of journalistic duty to ignore the worrying wealth of relegation experience notched up by all three players last season, it being that pre-season time of unicorns, rainbows and generally unbridled optimism, it would be mean-spirited to suggest it will stand them in anything other than good stead, at least until the inevitable opening-day defeat against Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday, one of few matches that Steve Bruce can be certain his red-card-in-waiting central midfielder Lee Cattermole will be eligible to play in.

Having scored 10 goals in 33 appearances for the Chunnam Dragons and six in 11 for South Korea, the 20-year-old striker Ji Dong-won will be a welcome acquisition to any squad capable of going 450 minutes without scoring, as Sunderland did last season (their goal drought was finally brought to a merciful, if accidental, end by West Brom's Nicky Shorey).

With the loanee Danny Welbeck summoned back to Manchester United and Asamoah Gyan remaining frustratingly erratic, Sunderland fans will be relying on Little Drogba, Stéphane Sessègnon, and the hulking tattooed man-boy Connor Wickham to deliver the goods. The latter's £8m (and the rest) capture from Ipswich Town despite interest from Spurs, Liverpool and Arsenal remains one of the summer's more intriguing bits of business and it will be interesting to see how he fares in the top flight.

Sunderland are almost certainly not good or bad enough to finish in the top or bottom six and the best they can hope for this season is probably to emerge triumphant in that tier of nothingness in the middle of the Premier League by coming seventh. Considering Everton topped this league within a league last season and their supporters have not stopped moaning since, it is increasingly easy to see why certain players in Bruce's squad might wonder if emulating them is really worth the effort.

After two seasons of mid-table ennui the thought of such player indifference is almost enough to make a Wearsider pine for the stress of a good old-fashioned relegation dogfight.