Sixer’s Sentiments: Calm Down, Calm Down

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The Horan dog and  settee may not have recovered, but Pete Sixsmith has, and is urging caution with regard to Monday night. How boring is that??   

Never let it be said that I will not invoke stereotypes if desperate for an opening line. A day at Bootle means that I am perfectly qualified to use the Harry Enfield gag from, oh, twenty years ago about Liverpudlians uttering the above words in high pitched voices.

But I do think that some of us need to. The impact of the excellent win at Stamford Bridge has really hit the region as red and whites have been able to stick their heads above the parapet after the disaster at SJP.

After that hideous experience, some folk went overboard, demanding the defenestration of the entire team and management. Bruce should be sacked, suspended, sent to live in West Cornforth etc. The players were a disgrace and the lot, apart from Bardsley and Bent should be made to play for Brandon United for a month.

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Luke’s World: The Chelsea Power Show

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It’s often said that being a Sunderland supporter is never dull.  Just when we might have thought we were heading for a straightforward, mid-table finish, we have the low of Newcastle followed by the high of Chelsea.  Luke Harvey reflects on an amazing fortnight, and applauds our players’ resilience in bouncing back.  

I could write reams and reams on my emotions and thoughts after the amazing destruction of league leaders Chelsea. None would truly convey all my feelings and none would be as good as Sixer’s succinct seven word round up, but the victory over Chelsea is easily as amazing as the Newcastle result was terrible.

The focus and commitment from the team was second to none. From beginning to end we looked in control of the situation, and even with a slender 1-0 lead Chelsea never looked like mounting a serious comeback – although I didn’t rule out the possibility until Welbeck made it three.

As already said elsewhere on this site: we were magnificent from front to back – and all without our talisman Darren Bent, proving we weren’t just a one-man team. With results since the Newcastle debacle looking very promising, it seems like Gyan and Welbeck have quickly formed an understanding up front – although surely Bent’s place in the team won’t be in jeopardy when fit.

While the £13m Ghanaian may be taking most of the plaudits up front – although I’m unsure where I stand on his dancing skills (I won’t complain to seeing them a few more times this season) – the rest of the team are deserving of equal praise.

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Soapbox: Things I will never do

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Having not missed a match home or away all season, except on the odd school night, Pete Sixsmith laments opting out of  the Chelsea game on the grounds of cost. Instead, the Horans’ sofa takes one hell of a beating.  

I have a short list of things I know that I will never do in my lifetime, things like never voting Tory or taking up English folk dancing. One of the football related things I vowed I would never do (alongside banging a drum at a match) was to pay £48.00 to watch a run-of-the-mill Premier League game.

Now, one of my golden rules has been broken. I have never ever voted Tory (or Lib Dem – they’re the same, aren’t they?) and you will never see me skipping around a market place with bells on my feet and waving knotted hankies at all and sundry. However, I do wish that I had spent £48.00 on Sunday on a ticket for Stamford Bridge.

If I had children (poor little sods) I could regale them in my dotage about how I was there at SJP in 1990, Hillsborough in 1973, Roker for the Manchester United replay in 1964. But I would not be able to say that I was at Stamford Bridge the day Sunderland slaughtered Chelsea (Paul Merson’s words, not mine).

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Bravo Jordan: show Chelsea your class but stick with us

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Fabio Capello has given us a good excuse to show off addick_tedKevin‘s latest Sunderland player image. Michael Turner was also, apparently, in Capello’s list of possibles (that outstanding second half at Spurs not quite enough to clinch it for him?), Darren Bent would have been involved if fit, so all in all we have reason to applaud the rising quality of Steve Bruce’s squad …

Thoroughly deserved selection, and reason for celebration (a sober one, on the eve of Chelsea away) for Jordan Henderson.

The lad has advanced by leaps and bounds under careful care at Sunderland and it will be a source of pride for those concerned with his development, as well as Jordan himself, that he may be about to win his first full international cap at just 20.

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Calling all Mackemoiselles

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It may be quiet around here in the coming week. I am off to St Petersburg on Monday – still Leningrad as far as Sixer is concerned – and what appears at Salut! Sunderland will depend on what others can supply and what Joan Dawson is able to post. After Chelsea tomorrow (about which I will try to post something, whatever becomes of us), the next game is not until Mon Nov 22 and the Everton “Who are You?” will appear on Friday, Friday and Saturday if we receive more than one completed questionnaire. See you soon …

The word – Mackemoiselles – officially entered the vocabulary on Thursday. Claire Reidlinger, photographed with her son (pictured above) at the Leicester pre-season friendly, had announced that she would not be in the Blackcats e-mail loop for the time being, thanks to a job change, leaving Karen Turner alone in flying the flag for female subscribers.

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Chelsea v Sunderland: ‘no, we don’t always expect to win’

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ChelseaD is as close as we are allowed to get to identifying the young (everyone, viewed from here, is young) woman in Blue who looks forward to another win over Sunderland on Sunday but benignly offers hope of a tighter margin than last season. What else do we know about her? Well, she runs The Chelsea Blog and, tongue pressed firmly into cheek, enjoys the high moral ground of supporting a club whose players never cheat. No, she’s not the Chelsea fan who took delight that rainy day in January in walking past the away end loudly exclaiming “Appreciate!” …

Salut! Sunderland: Despite your setback at Anfield, everyone assumes Chelsea will win the Premier League with ease this season. Is that how Blues fans see it?

Cheers for the reminder!

I can’t speak for the majority but I’ve never assumed we’d win anything this season. If anything, I’ve thought we’d been sailing by the seat of our pants for a few weeks anyway and needed to play a lot better against Liverpool if we were to come out of it with anything. The fact that we didn’t and were missing Lampard, Essien – and even Drogba for 45 minutes of it – showed we’re no less vulnerable than anyone else when it comes to dropping points.

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Welcome, Arsenal, to the world of accidental clogging

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Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s the embryo of a body of contrition hovering over the Emirates stadium as it dawns on Arsenal folk that their self-canonised saints of football may also, from time to time, stray from the path of purity …

Cesc Fabregas is a magical footballer, a convincing contender for any choice of the Premier League’s finest. He is also, necessarily, strong, fast and committed.

So realistic supporters, whether they are Gooners or follow Sunderland or Chelsea, Wolves or Stoke or indeed anyone else, can sympathise with Fabregas when he tells his manager he hadn’t the slightest wish to injure Stephen Ward of Wolves. Yet it was challenge that some felt merited a card of a different colour than the yellow shown by Mark Halsey.

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