The term ‘Super Sunday’ refers to the notion of one of the best games of the English football weekend being played on Sunday at 4.30pm.

But when arguably the second and third best games of the weekend are also being played on Sunday, back to back to back, the word super feels woefully inadequate.

From 12pm to 6.30pm GMT, in what is a less common notion these days with an increasing number of streaming channels, Sky Sports gave us the first Tyne-Wear derby at St James’ Park for a decade, the biggest Tottenham Hotspur league game for a generation (until the next one) in a relegation six-pointer against Nottingham Forest, and the first domestic cup final of the season.

The day delivered on its promise. This was Super God-tier Sunday, with all the emotions football can offer included. Even on the sofa.

A proper English football derby if ever there was one. Short sleeves, tough tackles, no half-and-half scarves and a lot of hatred. Proper fanbases, proper football, proper champion. They’re queueing around the block to get in Stack (a food and drink haven by St James’ Park) at 9am.

Come kick-off, after some unsavoury scenes when Sunderland fans and the team bus — via their police escorts to the stadium — need to dodge missiles on the way in, the atmosphere sounds incredible, even on the telly. Well, host David Jones is telling us about the cauldron and Michael Dawson is telling us about the atmosphere, yet other than a couple of cutaway shots, we don’t get to appreciate it in its glory.

Commentator Rob Hawthorne recognises the beauty of the moment, stops talking and invites us to listen.

These games are rarely about attractive football, so for the neutral, it’s about investing in the sights and sounds of a rivalry which is genuinely hate-filled and the results of which will absolutely have a huge bearing on both teams’ seasons being judged a success or failure.

When Anthony Gordon gives Newcastle an early lead, the limbs are raw and wild, helped by no hint of any potential VAR interference (witness Danny Welbeck not celebrating his winning goal against Liverpool amid muted noise in the stands for fear of an offside decision… the game has well and truly gone).

“Gordoooooooon,” screams Hawthorne, again appreciating the magnitude of the goal, leaving co-commentator Alan Smith to bemoan Sunderland’s weak attempts at playing the ball out from the back in a derby.

“Not at the start of the derby, just don’t do it,” Smith says.

It’s Newcastle’s half and the noise from the rambunctious home fans blares through the telly, while the quiet away fans are repeatedly accused of having “s*** support”. It’s all one way. But in 45 minutes, they’ll be booing their team off.

The Sunderland supporters take their medicine and bide their time. The second half is theirs… and so is the city.

When Brian Brobbey scores an 89th-minute winner, it’s hard to imagine there is any football fanbase in the world who enjoyed as sweet a moment as that this weekend.

Brobbey whips his top off, there are tops off in the away end and it’s a genuinely glorious moment. There are no tops off in The Athletic’s living room in north London, that would just be silly, but it’s hard not to be enthused and to get a little invested in Sunderland’s triumph.

Shirts off for a derby win (Carl Recine/Getty Images)

We’ve all seen the documentary, we’ve all looked at their club and hoped it would never happen to ours; down to League One, years of ignominy, and to compound it all, their local rivals were busy being taken over by billionaires, playing in the Champions League and winning a trophy.

If you want to support any different team this weekend, you’d be a Sunderland fan; from dodging missiles on the way into the ground, to leaving with all three points, having done the double and capped a near-perfect return to the Premier League.

“Those fans will be hoarse,” Hawthorne says, perhaps with a knowing nod to an infamous incident from a previous derby between these two. Lovely stuff.

What a rollercoaster of emotions. And it’s still only 2pm.

We only get five minutes of build-up, but there’s enough time to show cutaways of the impressive scenes around the stadium where Spurs fans have lined the route for the team bus, lighting flares and singing songs to reflect a rare day of unity in the team’s desperate struggle for survival. You can see what’s coming a mile off, can’t you?

Some have dubbed it the biggest and most consequential league match for Spurs in a generation. Well, the biggest since some were saying the same about the Crystal Palace match a few weeks back, which to be fair, feels like a generation ago.

Their supporters, from initially planning to protest against the club before the match, instead admirably turned anger into positivity and the club jumped on it too, encouraging fans to turn up early and all wear white, plus putting on a flag display and even a buy-one-get-one-free drink offer.

“This week we have seen an incredible show of unity and support from across our fanbase, driven by the clear message that we are all together, always,” Spurs said on their website.

In the darkest of dark comedies, the film immediately cuts to just after 4pm, with a tragic scene of a rapidly emptying ground in near silence with Spurs 3-0 down, while those who remain at the full-time whistle angrily and boo the team off. Except this is real life. This is Spurs’ waking nightmare.

Things are getting serious for Spurs (Alex Pantling/Getty Images)

When co-commentator Andy Reid, with Spurs 1-0 down in their absolutely massive must-win match, suggests that Micky van de Ven was withdrawn at half-time instead of Kevin Danso, because Danso has a decent long throw on him, well, how far we done fell. Oh Spurs.

The atmosphere for kick-off is one of the most vibrant and unified you’ll see, but it gradually descends as the afternoon progresses. First comes angst during a stunted first half, then stunned silence at Igor Jesus’ opening goal, then boos for the referee at half-time, then more silence at the start of the second half, then a bit more support before things collapse into restlessness, booing some players, anger and, ultimately, futility. It’s hard to watch on the telly as a neutral. Time to put fingers over your eyes, otherwise this is just rubbernecking.

The TV director spares us cutaways of sad fans until stoppage time and then the focus switches to Forest, with Vitor Pereira finally earning his first Premier League win of the season at the 15th attempt.

Morgan Gibbs-White being on the scoresheet only adds to the tragicomic feeling, what with Spurs having tried to sign him last summer, plus Antoine Semenyo (two goals against Spurs this season) and Eberechi Eze (five goals).

They are probably at their lowest ebb in the club’s modern history. Still, at least their day will get slightly better.

Sky bring out their big guns for the showpiece event with Peter Drury and Gary Neville in place for the Carabao Cup final.

Not content with this being a pretty important match because there’s a trophy to be won, there’s a mild obsession with painting this match into a wider picture for the rest of the season, with Drury stating it “seems to have a significance way outside of itself”.

Let’s just Carabao, Peter.

He has an innate ability to set the scene for the big occasion. “For Pep Guardiola, last season was trophyless, it cannot happen again,” Drury says. “For Mikel Arteta, time to reap the rewards of six years’ hard labour; this day and the two and a half months which follow it are everything to which he has been building.”

Blimey, this is big. And then we get the worst 45 minutes of the afternoon so far, with only seven shots (three of which come within a five-second period) and a lot of pedestrian football and misplaced passes. Drury and Neville call it “engaging” and “intriguing” — commentator speak for “it’s been really boring but we want you to keep watching”.

An error from Kepa Arrizabalaga led to the opener (Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)

The second half is much better, certainly for Manchester City who shift through a couple of gears and score twice through Nico O’Reilly. Neville is furious, but less so with flappy Arsenal keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga for his butterfingers for the opening goal, and more so for how slow the Spaniard has been at taking goal kicks. Classic Neville.

It’s a fairly drama-free last half hour, with the only jeopardy being how hard Rayan Cherki will be lumped for showboating (the TV director cutting to Pep Guardiola shaking his head is chef’s kiss), but the magnitude of City’s win, Guardiola’s joy and Arsenal’s surprising inability to show up makes for a fascinating spectacle.

It’s been a weighty afternoon of emotional heft; a gritty North East battle with an underdog victor, glory for Man City, pain for Arsenal, a rousing win for Forest… and just another day for Spurs.