Defeat to Arsenal on Saturday left Sunderland with two points from 10 Premier League games, equalling the lowest ever total at that stage of the season.
Draws with Southampton and West Bromwich Albion and eight losses have seen David Moyes' side match the unwanted record set by Manchester City in 1995, in a very different era for the club.
Alexis Sanchez's second goal of the match, to seal Arsenal's 4-1 win, also left Sunderland's goal difference at minus-13 -- one worse than City that season -- to edge them for the worst record. But all is not lost just yet, as these previous records prove.