The wait is over: the new football season is under way.
With the Premier League set for the big kick off in just over a week, the 2017/18 Championship campaign began at the Stadium of Light on Friday evening as Sunderland hosted Derby.
As was to be expected for the home side, it’s been a summer of change since Sunderland dropped out of the top flight. Simon Grayson has replaced David Moyes as manager and a number of last year’s first team squad – including top scorer Jermain Defoe – will begin the new season with new clubs.
As was pointed out by plenty of those that tuned in for Sky Sports’ coverage of the game, there was also a very noticeable change to size of the Sunderland pitch, which appeared to have been shortened and narrowed.
Along with many of those pointing this out…
https://twitter.com/racheltarbuck/status/893544668125954049
Sunderland appear to have shortened their pitch? #dcfc #dcfcfans
— mrchipsDCFC #Rams 🐑 (@_mr_chips_) August 4, 2017
Just looking at the old lines. Have Sunderland shortened their pitch?
— Wasp 🏴🇬🇧 (@WaspBoro) August 4, 2017
Have Sunderland made their pitch smaller ? #FNF #sunvsder #skysports
— Rob McGillivray (@cheekyrob83) August 4, 2017
https://twitter.com/WTownsley/status/893546877869842433
…some put forward theories as to why the the decision to redo the pitch markings had been made…
Have Sunderland shortened the pitch so much to be further away from the angry fans 🤔😂🙈
— paul stanhope (@paul_stanhope) August 4, 2017
I see Sunderland have made their pitch shorter and narrower this season, presumably to disguise their lack of fitness.
— Jonathan Wilson (@jonawils) August 4, 2017
Although not confirmed, the Roker Report blog suggests that the change may have been requested by Grayson following the 5-0 preseason defeat to Celtic which took place on the originally-marked pitch last week. This was also suggested by Sky’s commentary team during the first half.
