Take two of the best attacking teams in the Championship. Two of the highest scoring sides in the division, with 127 goals between them.
The two sides who had fired the least blanks this season, just twice in Burnley's case and six times for Sunderland. Add in the fact that Sunderland had scored in each of their last 22 games in all competitions - a run stretching back to the first week of November - and that Burnley had not failed to score at Turf Moor in almost a year.
If you put your money on a goalless draw, you're a brave punter! And yet that was how it played out in Lancashire, although this was anything but a dull stalemate.
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Instead it was a fascinating game in which Sunderland made light of their lengthy injury list to turn in a thoroughly disciplined defensive display, and came within the width of the woodwork of ending the Clarets' unbeaten home record. Sure, Burnley dominated possession with a 70-30 split between the teams.
And, yes, Sunderland had to defend for their lives at times with Lynden Gooch outstanding on his first start since mid-January, and having been asked to fill in at left-back, while Luke O'Nien excelled deputising for the injured Dan Ballard in central defence alongside the impressive Danny Batth, and right-back Trai Hume produced another fine performance. But Anthony Patterson really only had one save of any note to make, from Taylor Harwood-Bellis in the first half.
It was a baptism of fire for January signing Pierre Ekwah, who was handed the first senior start of his career, but he turned in a solid display alongside Dan Neil in midfield. Patrick Roberts drifted in and out of the game, but brought a good save out of Arijanet Muric in the first half and later set up substitute Amad when the on-loan Manchester United forward saw a deflected shot come back off the crossbar with the goalkeeper stranded.
Jack Clarke was a constant threat down the left and managed to find the net from an unlikely angle near the end, although that 'goal' was correctly ruled out for an offside. Joe Gelhardt and Alex Pritchard pressed and harried the Burnley back line at every opportunity, doing their best to stop the hosts from building from the back.
Sunderland had to work hard for their point, but it was fully deserved. In the overall picture, while they are by no means mathematically out of the play-off race, Sunderland have probably left themselves too much to do in their remaining seven games.
Their return of five points from a tough sequence of four games against top seven teams Norwich City, Sheffield United, Luton Town, and now Burnley is not what has cost them, rather it was the single point they picked up from the previous four games against more modest opposition in the shape of Bristol City, Rotherham United, Coventry City, and Stoke City. As for Burnley, this draw will only slightly delay their return to the Premier League - they are 14 points clear at the top and need only eight points from their remaining eight games to clinch automatic promotion.
The fact that Tony Mowbray came away feeling disappointed that Sunderland did not take all three points spoke volumes.
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