LIKE last year, Sunderland have a Premier League talent as their talisman. Only this time, he's their own player.

For how long is unclear. It's a matter of when not if Jack Clarke returns to the top flight. He's been there before, he'll be there again, it's where he belongs. Who knows, it might well be with Sunderland.

Saturday's win over Norwich ended the run of three defeats and got Tony Mowbray's side back on track. In typical Championship fashion, Sunderland - in seventh - are three points off third and only three ahead of 12th. We're almost a third of the way into the season and the Black Cats won't have seen anything to suggest they can't match last term's top six finish.

Especially with Clarke in such dazzling form. There surely isn't a better player in the Championship right now. And to think Burnley bid 10 and a bit million pound for him in the summer. He's worth, what, double that now? And very possibly triple in the future. Here's a young English winger who plays with both feet, is versatile and creates and scores goals.

His assist for Dan Neil's goal on Saturday was a work of art before he won and scored the penalty in the second half that secured all three points for Sunderland.

Poor Kellen Fisher, just 19, was making his Championship debut for Norwich at right-back. The good news for the teenager is it doesn't get any tougher than the challenge he faced on Saturday.

One of the key summer questions at Sunderland was how they'd replace Amad Diallo. The Manchester United winger was Sunderland's main matchwinner and top scorer. Clarke, after a summer of uncertainty, has stepped up and kicked on.

"On the back of last year, I know in the summer when we were talking about players and goals and I said to you, you have to score 70-odd goals to make the play-offs, who is going to score them?," said Mowbray.

"Amad had gone, top goalscorer, Ross got moved on, where was 70 goals coming from?

"I genuinely didn't think Clarke could get near his goal contribution from last season. He's done amazingly well."

Mowbray will be more than happy to have been proven wrong.

He added: "What I would say is he's a young boy who got sold to Tottenham from Leeds United, so the talent is obviously there. He has a lovely personality, he has opinions on football but he does listen. He can't not listen when he's stood right in front of me two yards away on the touchline and I'm screaming at him.

"I just think it's amazing how tight he keeps that ball to his right peg when he's cutting inside and chopping and straightening up again.

"He's a wonderful talent. We had big bids for Jack in the last window, we'll have to see whether big bids are coming in the next window and see what the club's thought patterns are moving forward."

January interest is inevitable and even now, two months out from the winter window, you can't ignore the feeling that Sunderland's promotion hopes may well hang on Clarke and whether he's still at the club on February 1.

READ MORE:

Norwich couldn't cope with him on Saturday. It was clear from the get-go he was very much in the mood and he almost fired Sunderland into a deserved lead at the 20-minute mark when he cut inside and hit the post.

Norwich had barely advanced into the Sunderland half in the opening stages and yet took the lead against the run of play. It was a lesson for Pierre Ekwah, who stopped expecting a flag when the ball was played towards a clearly offside Gabriel Sara, but he let it run for the overlapping Fisher, who cut back for Hwang to find the far corner.

Sunderland, though, were undeterred. Trai Hume drilled in a deserved equaliser and then Clarke did his thing. On the stroke of half-time, he weaved past three Norwich players before picking out Neil, who calmly lifted over George Long.

The Canaries were poor but perhaps sensed an opportunity as the second half reached its closing stages, but Clarke wrapped up the points for Sunderland. After he was fouled by Kenny McLean in the box, he picked himself up and slotted home his ninth goal of the season from the spot. It capped a brilliant performance from a brilliant player.