Arsenal Soapbox: same old Arsène, always moaning

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Pete Sixsmith was right at half time to text about Sunderland being well on top despite the fluke Fabregas goal. But maintaining our good cop/bad cop routine, he is less understanding than a certain other Salut! Sunderland writer of Arsène Wenger’s autowhinge mode …


The Wenger Whingometer usually goes to the top of the scale when the Metropolitan darlings have to visit the frozen north. Bolton, Blackburn, Stoke, Sunderland – Wenger hates them, with their gritty approach to football, their baying crowds and their pragmatic managers.

His post match interviews are a mixture of apoplexy and that superior look he can adopt, making him look like an incredibly snobbish llama.

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When Arsenal own up: cheers to Highbury House

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In the past 18 hours or so, I have heard Gooners admit they were second best for large chunks of yesterday’s game, that Arsenal players were more physical than ours, that Song’s serial offending brought him stern but hardly unfair punishment and that Marouane Chamakh dived shamelessly for a penalty (though not the one that was given; Collymore has confused everyone – see comments).

Great minds thinking alike, a regular Salut! Sunderland reader
Yiannis Skindilias draws our attention to a decent, reasonable account of the game from a Gooner with a platform just as prepare to reproduce it here with admiration:

It’s from Highbury House, one Gooners’ blog I hadn’t encountered before, And I join Yiannis in saluting the author.

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Sunderland v Arsenal: beauty and the beasts?

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Image: addick-tedKevin


Saturday morning and several hours to go before the later kickoff.

The papers are full of how wonderful Jack Wilshere is, how best he and the rest of Arsenal’s cultured but fragile elite should be protected from Premier League thugs (today’s equivalent of Keown, Adams, Bould, Winterburn, Dixon, Petit and Vieira? ‘appy ‘arry didn’t put it quite like that, but got pretty close).

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Prejudice and all that: coming to Lee Cattermole’s defence

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Image (from Munster v SAFC): L09C


Salut! Sunderland makes no apology for rebuking Lee Cattermole for his failure, for a second time in only three games this season, to stay on the pitch for all of one half. But we like a good argument. As if in quick response to my appeal for help when a forthcoming operation restricts my ability to post, Geoff Bethell pops up from New Zealand with a refreshingly different analysis …


I haven’t lived in Sunderland since 1961. I haven’t been there since 1968. I haven’t lived in the UK since 1970.

But out here in the glorious rugby-playing nation of NZ it’s still the case that to be a whole human being you can no more give up your love of Sunderland AFC than you can your brain.

Since the advent of the internet, keeping in touch has become so much easier. So it was on Sunday morning (we’re 11 hours ahead of UK) that I went on to SportingLife.com as usual for the results.

One-one away to Wigan. I’d hoped for better, feared for worse, but appreciated that 1-1 was acceptable. Was it a point well won or two points thrown away? The match reports and comments were the next things to check up on. It was then I lost it.

“Oh for eff’s sake.”

“What a complete and utter cretin.”

“Why do we persist with this twerp?”

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Brushed-up images of Steed and Kieran, noble words from Bent

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More graphic design wizardry from addick-tedKevin, but also a few words of appreciation for the efforts so far from two of our players – plus unqualified admiration for Darren Bent’s outstanding response to a worthy honour…

First of all, on the eve of Sunderland v Arsenal, let us hear it for two stars of our (slowly) improving season.

Steed Malbranque’s performances have oozed class, and even a level of stamina we didn’t know he possessed.

And Kieran Richardson, not always as convincing a member of our first team squad as discerning SAFC fans would like, has surely confounded critics with a string of excellent displays in a left-back position he was asked to fill in the first place because there was no one else good enough.

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Arsenal: ‘go on – would you rather watch us, or Stoke?’

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Our second Gooner to preview SAFC v Arsenal, Jon Ryan*, had an enviable journalistic career, mixing business and pleasure by becoming sports editor of the Mail on Sunday and The Sunday Telegraph. A racing man, too, he rounded it off by cantering into a top job at the British Horseracing Authority, which oddly enough brought him into contact with Niall Quinn. No hardship for a big Quinny fan. Jon is pictured with his daughter Jemma “on a disastrous night in Munich – we lost 3-1 in a snowstorm but at least witnessed the world’s biggest snowball fight in the Olympic stadium and had a mean knuckle of ham”. Bet he was happier last night …

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Soapbox: from the banks of the Plate to Bolton Reserves

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The first sentence of Pete Sixsmith‘s report from last night’s Reserves game may be evidence that he is finally losing it. He either doesn’t really mean it, or is about to undergo a significant life change. All because he joined a few hundred other souls at SAFC Reserves 0 Bolton Wanderers Reserves 0 …

Sometimes there are better things to do than watch midweek football. Last night was one of those nights. I could have stayed in and watched Mr H D “Dickie” Bird and the terpsichorean terror who is Lionel Blair, struggle to keep up with the tasks they were set.

Or, I could have gone into licensed premises, enjoyed a pint and watched Manchester United Odds and Sods play a Rangers side who adopted the type of tactics that a Division Two side would display on a visit to Old Trafford.

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The Arsenal ‘Who Are You?’: rooting for Blackpool, recalling another Sunderland

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Click here for a top sports editor’s view from the Emirates …

Sunderland v Arsenal: leave aside next week’s Carling Cup game and it’s the start of three really tough tests, and Mackems would settle now for a repeat of last season’s fixture. Perhaps Braga will tire them out tonight. Pat McLaughlin* runs the wildly successful JustArsenal.com fan site (million hits a month) from an armchair somewhere in Yorkshire. He expects the Gunners to thump us – but, then, he thought us dark horses for a sixth-top finish a year ago …

Salut! Sunderland: Solid enough start for the Gunners. What is your expectation for the season?

I have high hopes. I know Arsenal fans like to moan a lot, but I seriously believe the team is a lot stronger than last season, and we weren’t that far away. Squillaci and Koscielny will tighten things up at the back, and if Arsenal can avoid the ridiculous amount of injuries they sustained last year, I see no reason why we can’t finish at the top of the pile this time around.

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