Leicester City

Leicester winning the league, Sunderland winning a game: finding the best odds online

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Another of Salut! Sunderland‘s services to the football-loving community, in this case that part of the community that likes an occasional flutter.

Hands up anyone who wishes they’d put a tenner on Leicester City to win the Premier League title when they were 5,000-to-one (heaven knows what odds you’d get now on Leicester keeping a manager or Sunderland not only winning but with a clean sheet). Tony Stone would probably know as he describes himself as a ‘lover of betting and winning’. The nature of placing bets has changed; online betting is now king and here Tony reflects on the reviews options open to punters …

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The Chapman Report from Leicester: Moyes tardy on substitutions but deserves time

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Robert Chapman: ‘stick with Moyes’

For Robert Champman, homes games mean a long old haul from the Home Counites. So Lweicester was a doddle. Here are his measured post-match thoughts and a conclusion about David Moyes that may generate discussion. The headline sums up his outlook – and no, by ‘deserving time, Bob doesn’t mean the boss should be chucked in jail …

Having already decided that I wouldn’t be returning, almost certainly, to the moronic clappers’ stadium (Pete Sixsmith description) next season, I was in relaxed mood setting off in the late afternoon for the short drive up to Leicester.

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Moyes on the Boys from Leicester: the same old story

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Moyes on the boys

David Moyes offers his post-match thoughts. We were well beaten in the end despite Moyes’s justifiable claims that we had previously played reasonably well. Just not good enough, most of us would say. Doomed, we’d then add. Moyes does not go that far, of course …

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Sixer’s Sevens: Leicester City 2-0 SAFC. Decent fight, no punch

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RIP. Jake administers the last rites

Monsieur Salut writes: Sixer was absent again and we had few expectations. Seeing Cattermole in the starting XI and Anichebe on the bench (sent on late-ish) raised spirits, but we knew we were in such dire straits that only a win, with many more to follow, would do. After doing pretty well for an hour, with the usual lack of punch, Sunderland succumbed to a more determined spell of Leicester play: Oviedo and Kone missed Albrighton’s cross and Slimani’s unchallenged header beat Pickford. Then, after very nearly equalising in a blistering five-second spell with Anichebe hitting a post and Defoe firing into the side netting, Sunderland were down and out. Billy Jones slipped, Albrighton sped off down the left again and Vardy was there to smash home his cross. Here’s to a push for promotion …

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Wrinkly Pete’s Crystal Ball SAFC slip further behind prior to Leicester game

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Peter Lynn, aka Wrinkly Pete


Monsieur Salut writes: much earlier in the season, when hope was young and alive (for some), Peter Lynn, alias Wrinkly Pete, decided to look ahead to all remaining games and calculate how – it was ‘how’ not ‘if’ then – Sunderland would reach his estimate of 37 points and safety. You must read on the see how far behind we are in his reckoning.

As I wrote at ESPN before the Watford game, tonight is the anniversary of the date two years ago when Leicester City began their incredible bottom-to-top surge with the first of seven wins from the remaining nine games to ensure not just survival but 12th place respectability. I speculated that David Moyes had originally counted on two-to-four points from Watford and Leicester away if we were to emulate City’s escape, but was left needing six by the failure to beat Burnley. Three tonight would be a consolation and might, just might, inspire a proper revival. I’d be lying if I said I expect us to be anything other than just a step closer the drop once the final whistle goes, three more points handed to opponents. Prove me wrong, Lads. And now over to Pete …

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Leicester Who are You? defending Sri, acclaiming Defoe, missing Kante a little

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Brian Archie sports his Leicester top in a school photo from 1991

 

Monsieur Salut writes: it goes from bad to worse to boorish. Not content with his share of the blame for leading Sunderland’s downward charge to the Championship, our boss is caught – thinking he is off-air – snapping at a BBC reporter, Vicki Sparks, and threatening to give her ‘a slap even though you’re a woman’. Her crime? Asking an entirely legitimate question after the Burnley goalless draw about any extra pressure Moyes may have felt with the owner Ellis Short present for the game. Reports suggest there was no obvious humour in the remark’s delivery. The manager should add to his apology, already given and accepted, a substantial personal donation to a charity of the reporter’s choosing.

Now on to Leicester. Our ‘Who are You?’ interviewee Brian Archie’s* hope for the game, a 2-1 home win, is unlikely to improve Moyes’s mood. The Watford defeat means we can survive only if we do on Tuesday what Leicester did exactly two years ago and begin a sequence of something like seven wins from nine remaining games …

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Sunderland and Hull, Middlesbrough or Palace? Swansea or Bournemouth? Not WBA, as Leicester take off

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John McCormick
John McCormick: We’re  bottom and there’s now a gap

When I last reported in with the Salut Sunderland relegation watch we had had some recent wins but were still in the relegation zone, along with Swansea and Hull. (Swansea weren’t one of the clubs chosen in our start-of season poll but I included them in December on the grounds that some people did vote for “another club” and they  had begun to fit that bill after a decline).

That was only a month ago, just after the transfer window closed, since when new signings have had time to settle and new managers to generate – but maybe not sustain – a bounce. With a cup  weekend giving most of them a breather we have another chance to review  the situation.

But before I do, I have to congratulate West Bromwich Albion, who passed through our metaphorical barrier with ease. Would that we could reach such heights.

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Dear David: a devastating critique as Swansea, Crystal Palace, Leicester and Bournemouth add to misery

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Jake: ‘where do we go from here?’

This arrived ‘in the post’ as an entry in Guess the Score for SAFC vs Manchester City and before today’s rather depressing run of scores elsewhere. The author, Tom Lynn, is not just another disgruntled fan – he’s part of the life and soul of the Sunderland fan base, a man you bump into home and away and former editor of The Wearside Roar. He went for SAFC 0-4 City and also described the ‘hype around Pickford’ as ridiculous, calling him a great shotstopper with no real command of his area. Monsieur Salut does not agree with every word but it’s written from the heart and deserves to be seen ..

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