On 19 November 2017, Coleman was appointed as the new manager of under-performing Championship club Sunderland. He replaced a dismissed Simon Grayson, who had left the Black Cats third from bottom of the league table in twenty-second place and within the relegation drop zone. Coleman's first game in charge was a 2–1 defeat at Aston Villa, two days after his appointment. By the conclusion of 2017, Sunderland had collected eleven points, out of a possible twenty-four, under Coleman's guidance, briefly lifting out of the relegation zone into twenty-first place, following a satisfactory run of form.