Sixer’s Sevens. Man City 4 (3) Sunderland 1 (0): You’re having a laugh, Sam

NEWsevens copy

John McCormick writes…When I saw the lineup, without Kaboul and Cattermole, I thought, “that’s it, we’re f*****”. Then I saw Don Vito instead of long Pants and thought, “What’s going on?” And then I saw Danny Graham and seven words drifted across my brain – “Graham not Defoe? Sam’s having a laugh.” But the first half was no laughing matter.

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Manchester City tomorrow, Liverpool to come. An easy Christmas for Sunderland

My garden at 1.55pm
Whatever tomorrow at the Etihad or the new year hold in store, Salut! Sunderland extends seasonal best wishes to all.

If you have decided to put a visit here before listening to the Queen’s Speech or waiting for the umpteenth repeat of Morecambe and Wise, you’ll be expecting to see something new. Oops: we do repeats, too.

So use the Comments section to say whatever you want subject to the usual bounds of legality and decency and take a look, if you wish, at the delights we’ve served up for you this week:

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Sixer’s 12 Days of Christmas: SAFC’s Ho, Ho, Hos and No, No, Nos

Our star writer. Don't tell the children
Our star writer. Don’t tell the children

Only a few hours to go to Christmas, just over a week of 2015 left and we’re all in festive spirits. Aren’t we? Pete Sixsmith swears he heard someone say the beatings will continue until morale improves. But he’ll be there again on Saturday, and next Wednesday night and the Saturday after, clinging to the hope we cannot stand. For now, it seems fitting that a man who keeps the kiddies happy each year as Father Christmas should offer a seasonal contribution to the older Lads and Lasses who frequent these pages…

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Manchester City v SAFC Who are You?: ‘Touré’s king, Sam gives hope’

David Mooney
David Mooney in the quiet end, March 2014

David Mooney, one of Monsieur Salut’s confrères at ESPN FC and also in the day job (news editor of news editor at Imagine FM), is a lifelong Manchster City fan. He is a published author on City and the creator of the Blue Moon Podcast. Fittingly, after we saw that sensational strike at the Emirates the other night, not to mention the other one against us at Wembley, he names Yaya Touré as the finest player he has seen in sky blue. He likes the success Abu Dhabi gold has brought his club, misses Maine Road a bit, likes Sunderland well enough whe we’re not winning 1-0 and thinks we may just about escape under Big Sam …

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Is supporting Sunderland a waste of time and space?

M Salut, drawn by Matt, colouring by Jake
M Salut, drawn by Matt, colouring by Jake

Others have hauled me over the coals and I now accept I was probably too kind, as supersub for Pete Sixsmith’s Sixer’s Sevens, in stressing the late efforts to salvage a point at Chelsea.

My seven-worder, “Fought like tigers. Undone by woeful start”, was intended to convey both a spot of praise for the way we played in the last half hour at Stamford Bridge and exasperation at how badly we’d begun the game.

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Manchester City v SAFC Guess the Score: no cricket variations please

Forget our bleak midwinter .... happy Christmas all
Forget our bleak midwinter …. happy Christmas all


SALUT! SUNDERLAND wishes all readers, contributors, sponsors and advertisers a merry Christmas and a happy, healthy New Year. Thank you for your support …


It is difficult
to raise enough enthusiasm for something so trite as Guess the Score in a game most of us expect to lose and perhaps lose heavily.

But let’s try to keep the faith. There’s not much more Hope to be Unable to Stand and we’re all feeling pretty gloomy about our prospects, five points away from a position of safety already and a gap that seems certain to grow.

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Kaboul stars but slow-start Sunderland fall short in the Chelsea library

Conflicting messages?
Conflicting messages?

ESPN FC has changed the way its Premier League bloggers reflect on each game. Now the post-match musings take the form of player ratings – marks out of 10 followed by descriptions that are a bit longer than Rob Hutchison’s one-worders at Salut! Sunderland.

Monsieur Salut
‘s report from the passionless corner of west London that is Stamford Bridge appears at http://www.espnfc.us/club/sunderland/366/blog/post/2764378/younes-kaboul-solid-for-sunderland-in-loss-at-chelsea. See if you agree with the ratings …

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