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

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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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Sunderland’s Desert Island Discs – Wrinkly Pete’s playlist

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Peter Lynn: a musical theme for every moment
Peter Lynn: a musical theme for every moment

John McCormick asks: Do you remember, at least three managers back, so it must be years and years (or perhaps 18 months) ago, when I did an end of season piece about the songs that made the season. Now Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete, has picked up the theme with his own version of Desert Island discs. In keeping with the programme he has picked eight songs that  have special meaning for him, and maybe for other supporters.

Were you there? Did you sing? Or do you have other songs that bring back memories? In his e-mail to the boss Pete suggested others might give us their favourites. Why not give it a go?

Now, over to Pete:

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Sixer Says: on your way Jose Mourinho

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Jake: 'sometimes you just have to meddle in other people's business'
Jake: ‘sometimes you just have to meddle in other people’s business’
Malcolm Dawson writes……Don’t tell the kids but Pete Sixsmith is often busy at this time of year spreading joy and happiness throughout the North East, dishing out all sorts of goodies from his sack. And today Jose Mourinho also got the sack although I can’t remember the last time I saw him spread any joy and happiness around. They say it was by mutual consent and at this time of peace and goodwill maybe that’s a way of sorting out the financial settlement owing to him. Pete has his own views on events at the Bridge and he’s not frightened to share them.

GOODBYE JOSE

The second item on the Six O’Clock News tonight featured a middle aged man based in London falling out with a motley group of Europeans and ending up walking away. But enough of David Cameron and his travails with the massed ranks of the EU political leaders; the first item was the end of The Special One.

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As Sunderland face Chelsea, meet our Weardale connection and name SAFC’s top scorer

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Let us introduce you to our Guess the Score sponsors
http://www.personalisedfootballgifts.co.uk/sunderland/sunderland-gifts

The buildup to Chelsea v SAFC has begun with Guess the Score. Soon there’ll be another of our ‘Who are You?’ interviews. For now, though, some ideas for late Christmas shopping with a Sunderland flavour …


In an ideal world, Salut! Sunderland would have is own busy sales department, teams of people beavering away to dispatch SAFC-related merchandise to all corners of the world and keep Sixer, Jake and the rest of us in a style to which we are not accustomed.

But that ideal is beyond us. Our modest forays into the field were amateurish, far too time-consuming to justify the effort and, in the end, spectacularly unsuccessful.

Along the way, however, we have managed to attract those who are good at this kind of thing to sponsor our competitions and, in a few cases, advertise with us. So it is time for Salut! Sunderland to return the favour.

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Chelsea v SAFC Guess the Score: will Leicester result help or hinder?

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Jake: 'anything Bournemouth & Leicester do, we can better' Can't we?
Jake: ‘anything Bournemouth & Leicester do, we can do better’ Can’t we?


Knowing Sunderland supporters as we do, the easiest guesswork in this week’s competition would be to predict the answer to the question in the headline.

Decades of disappointment have made most of us professional gloom merchants. So Chelsea’s latest defeat, 2-1 at refreshingly table-topping Leicester, damages our prospects for Saturday at the Bridge rather than improves them.

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