Sunderland v Liverpool: a turn-up for the books

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The Anfield dressing room, home of Liverpool FC, and the shirts of Jamie Carragher, Sami Hyypia, Daniel Agger, Martin Skrtel, Fabio Aurelio and Andrea DossenaBen Sutherland

In which Niall Quinn gets close to an apology for the D for Despise outburst …

Sunderland will play Liverpool to a packed house of almost 49,000 a week on Sunday, a terrific piece of news made better because the match is live on television.

The response to the lingering attraction of Kenny Dalglish’s club, and our own hugely encouraging season (for all the blips), is so much more welcome because of the recent controversy caused by Niall Quinn’s attack on supporters who watch games on illegal pub broadcasts.

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French football: Marseille come clean as Brandao accused of rape

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In Salut! Sunderland‘s French Fancies series, we take a look at a display of candour of a type rarely encountered in the English game …


It seems almost unimaginable in the Premier League.

A player is suspected of forcing his sexual attentions on a woman in a motorway service area. Far from clamming up behind an absurd wall of “none of your business” silence, the club’s chairman talks openly about his exasperation with the player’s general conduct.

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Changing places: Newcastle and other away fans (plus their prison cells)

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Go to jailShayne Kaye


So you didn’t know the Stadium of Light had a secondary role as part of HM Prison Service? Read on …

From the Sunderland Echo‘s Graeme Anderson comes as welcome a spot of news as we’ve seen since, well, Danny Welbeck returned from injury.

Sunderland, he says, are considering how to move away fans to a different part of the Stadium of Light than the large, usually too large, section of the South stand they are currently allocated.

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Ellis Short: the Mackem passion of a ‘perfect owner’

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A Love Supreme

If Ellis Short does not quite observe a Trappist vow of silence, he is a man of few words, in public at least. But now he plans a rare interview about his ownership of – and plans for – Sunderland AFC …

You’d almost think the Pope, the Queen or Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali were about to bare their souls to the world live on network TV.

The North-eastern press is solemnly reporting that Ellis Short, esteemed owner of Sunderland AFC, is – to quote the Sunderland Echo – to “make another address to the club’s fans in the near future”.

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So near, so far: Wigan to Newcastle, Lens to Lorient

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Another instalment of French Fancies, Salut! Sunderland‘s occasional dip into football as it’s played on the other side of La Manche – with a comparison of tight competition in the top flights of both France and England and news of the latest phase of David Bellion’s footballing career …

It is time for M Salut to take another glance at the French Ligue 1. And there is one striking similarity between what is going on there and in our own Premier League season.

Look at ninth position in the PL and eighth in Ligue 1: our friends up the road at Newcastle United on 36 points in England, Lorient on 36 in France.

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Arsenal Soapbox: Miliband right to turn his back on Gunners

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Forget Louise Taylor, good as she is. Put the reports from the two Echos and Journal to one side. This is the essential post-match read. Pete Sixsmith looks back with relish on a grand day out, leaving us unbeaten in the Smoke after visits to Tottenham, Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal – and brings you a David Miliband scooplet …

That’s better. Everything we didn’t do at the crumbling ruin known as Goodison Park last week, we did at the ultra-modern Ashburton Grove this week.

Last week, we were disorganised and disappointing. On Saturday, for the full 94 minutes, our players kept their shape, remained focused and took a deserved point off a team with a genuine chance of winning the League title, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

We got a break when the assistant referee put his flag up a split second too early and, wrongly, gave Arshavin offside. But who is to say that Arshavin would have scored had the flag not gone up? Mignolet pulled out of his challenge because he knew that the whistle had gone. The kind of game that the young Belgian was having suggested that he would have comfortably dispossessed the Arsenal player.

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Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 Observed: what Barca couldn’t, we could

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For the second successive week, The Observer caught our Pete Sixsmith on his way out of an away game. He was in a lot happier mood this time, and with good reason. But as usual, we start with the opposition view …

JOSH BEDNASH, Myclubarsenal.wordpress.com

This was really disappointing, especially after United lost in the week. We had a chance to close the gap on them but Sunderland played well, harried us and gave us no space to play our football. We looked jaded and were far from our best. We missed Fábregas, Van Persie and Walcott, as well as Song. There was no creativity today and it’s so cruel that we are going to Barcelona with nowhere near our best side for the second year running. The second half today was a bit better than the first, but without Van Persie we don’t have any options up front. I prefer Chamakh to Bendtner, but it didn’t happen for him today.

Ratings
Szczesny 7; Sagna 6, Djourou 6, Koscielny 6, Clichy 7; Diaby 5 (Rosicky 77 6), Denílson 6 (Chamakh 61 6); Nasri 8, Wilshere 7, Arshavin 7; Bendtner 7

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Steve Bruce: hearts in mouths but point was earned

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In his post-match e-mail from the Emirates. Steve Bruce gets it about right and salutes Danny Welbeck’s heartening return …

Dear Colin,

Our resilience was back, which was good to see. We needed a big performance because we let ourselves down at Everton last week.

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