A three all draw is always more satisfying when your team has recovered from three nil down than when it has thrown away a three goal lead. So it has been with the defeats against West Brom, Norwich and now Chelsea. The team’s performances in the latter stages of those games can be seen as causes for optimism. That’s certainly the spin the manager is putting on the outcome of those games, but once Pete Sixsmith has had time for objectivity to kick in he sees worryingly weak team performances achieving too little, too late.
Chelsea
Martin’s Musings from SAFC 1 Chelsea 3: disappointment in defeat but fight in the dressing room
Sixer’s Sevens: SAFC 1 Chelsea 3. Into the drop zone

Pete Sixsmith‘s seven-word verdict on the home game against Chelsea offers mild encouragement after what remains a clear defeat to a team with a bad run of league form of their own to worry about. News can travel slow when you’re in the Sahara so no one will thank Monsieur Salut for pretending to know much more than 0-1, 0-2, 0-3 – Torres (two, almost inevitably) and Mata – before Adam Johnson managed to claw one back. Otehrs may dip in to flesh out this bare-boned detail. Martin O’Neill has to snatch a win from somewhere and it had better be on Tuesday night …
Reflections: Wickham’s chance against Chelsea & Manchester United’s Little Pea making people fruity
Stephen Goldsmith writes: It’s been a couple of weeks since I ran a reflections piece, and I know you’ve missed …
Out of Africa: a Chelsea view of Sunderland’s plight – and escape exit

News, with great conscientiousness, from afar. It’s over, to adapt the relatively recent colloquialism, once the fat lady has sung.
Monsieur Salut, even at the safe distance of the Tozeur oasis in south-western Tunisia, knows better than to accuse Salut! Sunderland‘s star writer of resembling a fat lady. But Sixer has most definitely sung on the issue of O’Neill One Year On so the series cannot be reopened for anyone, least of all someone who does not even support our club. Even so – as Jeremy Robson has noted at Football Analysis*, the site of a South African supporter of Chelsea, Grant James – this is a superb assessment. It therefore merits a slot and a plug …
Salut! Sunderland’s Week: O’Neill In or Out, Norwich blues, confronting Chelsea

A return of the occasional series of week-gone summaries as Monsieur Salut kicks his heels after a fairly pointless guided tour of a thalassotherapy centre 20 minutes out of Tunis – why didn’t they take me to Carthage instead? I have to report that I have so far, 12 hours into my trip, failed to locate a creative Tunisian midfielder or strike partner for Fletch …
SAFC v Chelsea: will the Nordsjaelland factor help or hinder? Guess the score

Monsieur Salut is off to Tunisia to take a quick look at what the Arab Spring has meant for tourism. Will he find somewhere to watch the Chelsea game? Or will he have to rely on the nimble-fingered Pete Sixsmith’s test messages from the East Stand? Better still, you tell me now before I fly, what the score will be …
SAFC v Chelsea Who are You?: ‘Torres finished, Fletcher would start for us’

Grant James* – passionate South African fan of Chelsea (he manfully confesses why later on), www.football-analysis.com”>football analyst and sports coach – has already been honoured by Salut! Sunderland, his comments on our club’s predicament deemed worthy of publication in advance of this, the full “Who are You?” interview. This is what his assessment of SAFC was taken from. Days before a game many fans of both clubs see as must-win, Grant’s answers provide a fascinating read. His thoughts on Chelsea’s own domestic ructions suggest Rafa’s hopes of endearing himself to the Stamford Bridge faithful are remote …
Do they mean us? Our Chelsea interviewee on where O’Neill’s going wrong
Chelsea have problems galore of their own. But it is interesting to hear what they make of ours. Salut! Sunderland …
Chelsea: still not properly sorry, still a disgrace

Victimhood has set in at Stamford Bridge. After acting despicably last week, dismissing a manager months into a reign that had yielded unexpected glory and refusing to apologise for the appalling slur on Mark Clattenburg’s reputation, the club is clinging to its bogus high ground.