Sunderland’s impressive Premier League return has come despite the absence of seven players away on Africa Cup of Nations duty over the last few weeks, says Sunderland columnist James Hunter, as Régis Le Bris’ side prepare to visit Brentford.

The Wearside club have now played four matches without much of their AFCON contingent, including important figures Noah Sadiki and Reinildo Mandava, but have coped well in their absence.

The Black Cats may also be without key defender Dan Ballard for Wednesday night's clash at Gtech Community Stadium (7.30pm kick-off), live on Sky Sports, with the centre-back missing he last three games with an ankle issue.

Sunderland have picked up 29 points at the time of writing, with half of the season done and dusted. Would it be fair to say everything has gone a lot better than anyone could have imagined?

Yes - hugely so. What has happened since August has been a very, very welcome surprise for Sunderland fans.

It was a bit of a voyage into the unknown, coming back into the Premier League, with an awful lot of new players, most of whom the fans did not know much about before they got here. So, the way this first half of the season has unfolded has just been fantastic.

They have loved not only the results they have achieved, which have been impressive enough on their own, but also the style they have played with; they have taken the game to teams.

It has not always worked and, obviously, there have been games that they have lost along the way, but they have gone to places like Anfield, come away with a point, and felt disappointed by it. If you had said that to Sunderland fans in the summer, they would have snapped your hand off.

It has been very positive and the massive fillip along the way has been the derby win against Newcastle last month, which was always one thing that was on every fan's mind coming back into the Premier League.

The club has only accrued more than 40 points in a single Premier League season on five occasions. Right now, that is only 11 points away, with 19 games left to play. Survival is, naturally, the first target, but has there been any talk of potentially chasing a new points record?

At the moment, they are in a strange half-and-half situation. Nobody wants to get carried away and look any further than achieving survival and safety, because that has got to be the number one priority for any newly-promoted team.

But at the same time, people are realistic and they can see where they are in the table and how well they have done so far this season, even given that some of their best players are away at the Africa Cup of Nations at the moment and they have still managed to dig out results along the way.

So, they are looking at that and thinking they really do have an opportunity to do something quite special this season. I remember covering Sunderland in 1999/00, when they finished seventh under Peter Reid, ending up with 58 points, which was really quite remarkable.

Whether this team can achieve that, I am not sure, but it is certainly something to aim for, beyond just the 40-point mark, even though most of the time you do not need 40 points to survive anymore.

Given the sizeable spending spree after promotion in the summer, would you say they need to do much in January?

I think they will do a bit of business, and they are in a strong position to strengthen right now. If you are struggling come January, it can be difficult to attract players and it was probably difficult to attract players in the summer, as Sunderland had to try and get them to take a leap of faith.

But players they are in touch with now will look at the table and think, ‘Yeah, I fancy that!’ which will help them recruit. I do think they will add to the squad, but they will also have to get some players out because there are quite a lot of players in the squad that are not really going to get near the first team.

That is not because they need the fees to be able to bring players in, but just because otherwise the squad becomes unmanageable. They will probably bring in two, maybe three, targeted signings and it would not surprise me if they look to bring in another winger.

Every club is always on the market for a striker, but January is a difficult time to do that. They can afford to be choosy, though, and hang back and wait for the players they want, rather than just the ones that are available.

Which player should Brentford fans be keeping an eye out for on Wednesday night?

You have to look at Granit Xhaka, who has been absolutely phenomenal this season. He has been the heartbeat of the team. He has not just anchored the team, but he also gets more out of the players around him.

He also produces assists; it is not as though he is just sitting. He is getting forward and shouldering some of the burden there, too.

Brian Brobbey has really impressed fans in recent weeks. It has taken him a bit of time to get up to speed, but he is big, he is powerful, he is a bit of a battering ram of a centre-forward, in the old-fashioned style.

The one disappointment is that I cannot see Dan Ballard being fit by then, but he would have been a player to look out for defensively, but also at set-pieces in the Brentford box as well. So, it has probably worked out well for Brentford that he is unlikely to play.

What should Keith Andrews’ men expect in terms of shape and style?

Le Bris has been quite flexible. Sometimes, he has played 4-2-3-1, other times, he has played 4-4-2 or a back five.

My feeling is that he will play with a variation of a back four with two strikers, just because that is how he tends to get the best out of the players at his disposal.

He tends to be very much horses for courses so, whatever he thought was appropriate against Brentford back in August, he will probably do something similar again, I would guess.

What’s your prediction for the game?

You start from the benchmark that, if you can get a point from an away game, that is a decent result. I do think Sunderland will feel that they can go to Brentford and take all three points, though.

Brentford are a good side, do not get me wrong, but Sunderland will not go anywhere now and feel they need to hang on for a point, probably outside Arsenal or Manchester City.

Pretty much everywhere else, as they showed down at Liverpool, they will feel they can go and give teams a game - and I think they will try and do that against Brentford.

They would feel more confident if they had those players who are at AFCON in the ranks, of course, but I do feel they will fancy their chances.