Unbeaten in ten? Or winless in five?

It depends whether your glass is half-full or half-empty, I guess.

Whichever way you look at it, though, Sunderland’s run of five successive draws - one shy of the club record set in the Spring of 1949 - has taken the wind out of their sails.

The Black Cats roared into November sitting pretty at the top of the Championship table, five points clear of the chasing pack.

Yet they have been reeled in, overtaken, and have slipped to fourth place ahead of tonight’s trip to face promotion rivals and now joint-leaders Sheffield United.

Back-to-back goalless stalemates at QPR and Preston, surrendering a two-goal half-time lead at home to Coventry City, and then this week conceding an injury-time equaliser at Millwall followed by another blank, this time at home to West Bromwich Albion, has left fans frustrated to put it mildly.

Sunderland’s form has not fallen off a cliff. They have not imploded. Nor have they blown their promotion chances. Not by a long chalk.

Of course, there are draws and there are draws.

And how you view them depends on the opposition and the circumstances.

A point at relegation candidates QPR was a disappointment by any standard, but the fact that Sunderland played for half-an-hour with ten men following the dismissal of Jobe Bellingham took some of the sting out of it.

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Just as, given Regis Le Bris was without six first-team regulars through injury and suspension at Millwall, most fans would have settled for a draw at The Den before kick-off - only the sight of another lead thrown away and the lateness of the equaliser cranked up the sense of frustration.

At struggling Preston, Sunderland were second-best and somewhat fortunate to return home with a point.

On Tuesday night, Sunderland were the better side against West Brom and created enough chances to win but could not find a finish.

The 2-2 draw against Coventry is the outlier. That still smarts.

Given recent results, it is no surprise to see fans making comparisons with the 2018-19 season under Jack Ross in League One when a surfeit of draws cost the Black Cats automatic promotion and wound up in the play-offs.

Sunderland ended that season with 19 draws from 46 games, equating to more than 41 percent of their fixtures ending all square.

So far this term, six draws from 17 games works out a little over 35 percent.

Coincidentally, after 17 games Ross’ side had also drawn six times.

The parallel is there but don’t read too much into it.

Sunderland also drew six of their first 17 games the season before last under Alex Neil and then Tony Mowbray and - while, granted, they did not challenge for automatic promotion - that campaign went pretty well as they finished sixth and qualified for the Championship play-offs.

In direct contrast, last term Sunderland did not draw for a sixth time until mid-March, 38 games in, but no-one wants to go through another season like that and trail in 16th.

So where does that leave this Sunderland under Le Bris?

To state the obvious, no team can win every game and successful teams make sure that if they don’t win then they don’t lose.

But there’s a fine line between draws being seen as the hallmark of a side that is hard to beat, and the calling card of a side that is left to rue missed opportunities in the final analysis come the end of the season.

I’m willing to give Sunderland the benefit of the doubt, for now.

My glass remains half-full.