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Who are you? We’re Arsenal (3)

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It’s been raining Gooners. Some weeks we struggle to find one fan from Sunderland’s next opponents to answer the Salut! Sunderland questionnaire. With Arsenal, it has been a doddle. From New York, Halifax, and Kent, they’ve practically been queueing to have their voices heard. Last up is Darren Wright*, who runs the very popular Gunners’ fansite Wrighty7. Arsenal have to make do these days without the feet – and deadly left hand – of Thierry Henry, but Darren predicts a dodgy Eduardo penalty in a hard-fought away win …

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Salut! Sunderland: So, Arsenal are seen as by some as “dark horses” for the title.That makes you sound almost mortal after so long in the top four. Insulting , or a status that takes the pressure off you?

Ha Ha I suppose we looked “immortal” during the unbeaten 2003/04 season but as proved we are mortal like everybody else! To be honest Colin I don’t find us being “dark horses” insulting in the slightest. Manchester United and Chelsea have raised the bar in recent seasons and its up to ourselves and the others to match that. With Liverpool struggling, Manchester City spending and everybody expecting it to be a two-horse race between United and Chelsea I’m happy for Arsenal to be quietly doing the business and nobody really noticing!

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Who are you? We’re Arsenal – but expect Sunderland to finish 6th

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From Halifax (and Hull and Hell), the Good Lord has delivered Pat McLaughlin* into the arms of Arsenal. Pat runs the Just Arsenal website and, while most of France dreams of playing for the Gunners, dreams of living (not for the first time in his life) in France. He’s our second Gooner – with a third still to come – to preview Saturday’s big game, Sunderland v Arsenal, and thinks we’ll do rather well this season. According to my mental arithmetic, he has us finishing sixth. Was that a pig-like creature we just saw flying by? …

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(Slightly modified version of posting that appeared earlier today. The third and final Arsenal “Who are You?” feature, in which Darren Wright from the Wrighty7 fansite answers similar questions, will be published on Friday morning)

Salut! Sunderland Everyone raves about how exciting the Gunners are to watch. What do you remember of the days when it was “boring, boring Arsenal”?

LOL i used to agree with the monicker. George Graham used to bore me too. But i started going to Highbury when it was Johnny Radfords day, and they were never boring! It used to cost me ten bob to go in the “pit” (kids section)

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Who are you? We’re Arsenal (1)

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Once upon a time, Fatima al Shamsi*, pictured (left) with her sister Alyazyah outside the Emirates Stadium, accepted an internship at an English-language newspaper in Abu Dhabi, capital of her native UAE, and found herself under the professional guidance of a Sunderland supporter. It would be a gross misrepresentation of events to suggest she returned to college in New York knowing more about SAFC than journalism. The experience left her with some affection for Sunderland, but nowhere near enough to supplant her passion for the Gunners. A day earlier than planned, thanks to some technical hitch, here’s what she has to say…

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Salut! Sunderland: Barca, Brazil, Inter Milan and Arsenal. Sounds like the ultimate wish list of the Queen of Gloryseekers. How come you collect great football teams?

AC Milan not Inter! I started watching football when I moved to Brazil at the age of three. although I barely remember any of it. I just remember playing it at school and watching incomprehensibly with my dad and simply loving it. This is why the Brazilian national team has always held a special place in my heart. It been great to see them play beautifully again (especially during the confederation cup over the summer) after recent years of frustrating subpar football which was an absolute horror to watch. With that said I also enjoy watching the Spanish national team and at times Argentina, but when it comes down to it, its definitely club vs. country and I’d take an Arsenal game any day.

I am definitely not a glory seeker! When I was younger me and my dad bonded a lot during the weekends by watching matches together. his main indulgence during the weekends were football games so we had time to watch the Spanish, Italian and English leagues. I had a lot more time to follow those different leagues so I had a favourite team in each one. Although you may call me a glory seeker for these teams, I picked them as a child based on favourite players and rivalries within my household between me my parents and my siblings so they just happened to be good teams and not a conscious ‘glory seeking’ decision. These days I don’t really keep up with the Italian league much but I do follow Barça games as much as I keep track of Arsenal (although if it has to come down to it, like it did champions league finals 2006, it’s always Arsenal first).

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Niall Quinn: who else could make us like Chelsea?

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Niall Quinn famously wrote: “I learned my trade at Arsenal, became a footballer at Manchester City, but Sunderland got under my skin. I love Sunderland.” From Colin Randall‘s mini-profile, we see that the Sunderland chairman’s powers appear to know no bounds. For as long as it may last, he’s even got us thinking well of Chelsea ….

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One ofthe best things you can say about Niall Quinn has nothing strictly to do with the outstanding football he played for Sunderland, the way he has conducted himself as chairman or even the magnanimous donation of the entire £1m proceeds of his SAFC testimonial to hospitals in Sunderland and Dublin and an orphanage run by a pal in Calcutta.

It is that you know instantly he’s the sort of bloke you’d enjoy having as a friend, or even as an occasional acquaintance with whom to share a drink or two.

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Soapbox: no Sunderland, but a perfect weekend

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What were we doing in Huddersfield? Or, for that matter, Fitzwilliam, Leeds and Durham? Not to mention Istanbul. Easy. Put on a weekend of internationals and you can bet on certain things: Salut! Sunderland readers deserting in droves in the knowledge of how little we care, the editor enjoying a rare stress-free Saturday/Sunday and a foray into obscure corners of football and culture by Pete Sixsmith …

You may well have noticed that the Salut! Sunderland pages have been very quiet over the weekend. No new articles, no debate about whether Bent dived or articles going back over old grievances like McAllister’s triple jump and salko or whether Tadger Norris slipped or was pushed in Durham Challenge Cup match in 1881.

Reasons? International break, so b***** all to write about from the SAFC point of view. The editor slipped off on a scouting trip to Istanbul with his wife, while the work experience boy (yours truly) had a treble up. So, in the absence of anything else to write about, let me tell you about it.

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Andy Reid and the Giovanni grudge factor

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As it is internationals weekend, a large chunk of Salut! Sunderland is off to Istanbul to celebrate his wedding anniversary. Whether much new appears here over the weekend is up to another large chunk, and the IT and editing skills of a smaller chunk, left behind. But before I tuck into the kebabs, let me give a quick kicking to Giovanni Trapattoni for his continued exclusion of Andy Reid from the Irish squad …


Q: “What do you call a banjo at the bottom of the sea?”

A: “A start?”

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Liverpool’s great escape – eight years before the Ngog takeoff

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Forget Ngog (pictured courtesy of Christoper_tng) who tells me he’s a Liverpool fan), forget the beach ball that saved us from having to score one of the four sitters that followed. When it comes to Liverpool and luck – good or bad, depending on your allegiance – we’ve seen crazier things …

Poor Peter Walton seems to have paid a swift, harsh price for his calamitous award of a penalty for Liverpool when David Ngog launched into the sort of takeoff that has one football site asking this morning which Olympic sport France might consider entering him for.

According to the Daily Mirror, he will be relegated to the Football League or at best fourth official duties (if, indeed, that is seen as a punishment) when real football resumes after the international break.

It’s the sort of rough justice that comes after the most serious of refereeing blunders these days. But Peter should take heart (and feel aggrieved): Salut! Sunderland can assure him that it’s happened before (and that the culprit on that occasion escaped any sort of sanction that we know of).

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Eduardo, Ngog and an everyday saga of Bent penalties

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The issue of cheating in football won’t go away. Is it a price worth paying for the cut and thrust of post-match debate? Colin Randall gets stuck in traffic long enough to hear a range of views …

If we are honest, most of us love the controversy that football provokes.

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