Premier League

Sixer’s Sevens: Sunderland 2-2 Liverpool. Maybe deserved to win

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Jake: ‘bonus point! The frustrating thing is that half of that fight and effort would probably have beaten Burnley’

Monsieur Salut writes: what a transformation! Here was a performance unrecognisable from the dross seen at Turf Moor. Most of us would have taken a point before the game; against title contenders, we might easily have won had Anthony Taylor, who had curiously patchy curate’s egg of a game (ie good in parts), given us not two but three penalties, the disallowed one no less a stonewall spot kick than the two he awarded. A good game and Pete Sixsmith‘s instant seven-word verdict reveals a happier man than we heard from at Burnley …

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In case you missed the Liverpool vs Sunderland ‘Who are You?’

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Jake’s take

HAPPY NEW YEAR

It is not often that a Who are You? interview is re-posted. On this occasion, 24 hours (23 actually) ahead of our home game against Liverpool, it seems a natural thing to do. Why? Well, it’s a good interview but that alone wouldn’t be enough. Nor would the fact that not all readers will have seen it first time around.

It is simple really. The juxtaposition of fixtures over the New Year period, two in three days, led us to publish the Liverpool WAY even before the Watford match had been played (albeit by only the home side since Sunderland didn’t turn up). Even without the latest injuries (Kone and Anichebe), this seemed a tough old game, the sort you go into after a fine away win against a side much lower down the table. That went wrong, of course, so we need heroics tomorrow. Watching Watford v Spurs gave an idea of the gulf between top and lower midtable, so we must expect the worst while hoping for the best when second top meets third bottom. You can still enter Guess the Score, by the way – just forget the Burnley part! …

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Sunderland and the transfer window. Doom and gloom Observed

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Sixer at The Observer: his Burnley-SAFC match report is not for the squeamish

It hardly seems appropriate after yesterday but Salut! Sunderland wishes all readers, including those who contribute to its pages, a very happy new year …

Monsieur Salut writes: surely no football team sets out to play as woefully as ours did at Burnley yesterday. It just happens. Sadly, of course, it seems to happen to Sunderland more than to most.

Supporting Sunderland has never been easy and few of us will stop doing so because of the meek and clueless surrender at Turf Moor. But where do we go from here (yes, I realise the answer is fairly obvious, but I mean if we are to give ourselves any hope of redemption)? Peter Sixsmith, who suffered with the rest of the travelling contingent in Lancashire, was asked by The Observer to set out our transfer prospects. This was his response, naturally submitted before yesterday’s calamitous events …

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Sixer’s Burnley Soapbox: the death warrant for Sunderland’s Premier League status?

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Pete Sixsmith has endured much as a Sunderland supporter but yesterday’s ordeal was about as bad as it gets. We’re still in a better position points-wise than last year but the omens for improvement via the transfer window don’t look good, and it was transfers that made the difference last season. No-one can be in any doubt significant improvement is needed, and needed desperately; if we continue to play the way we did yesterday we can kiss goodbye to the Premiership for a long, long time, as Pete makes clear in another immaculately observed match report

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Sixer’s Sevens from Burnley: ‘probably the worst Sunderland display this century’

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Jake: ‘sorry it’s late but not as sorry as that sorry shower of sh*** should be’

Monsieur Salut writes: unhappy texts flowed between Turf Moor and me today. I cannot recall an occasion when it seemed right to post Pete Sixsmith‘s seven-word instant verdict as the headline. This was one. I watched and listened as best I could and Gary Bennett got it spot-on – ‘no communication, no will to win, no belief, no character’ …

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Weighing up our chances at Burnley and at home to Liverpool

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Just a quick update ahead of our two games over the New Year period, away to Burnley tomorrow and at home to Liverpool 48 hours later.

It seemed sensible to bring together Guess the Score into one joint competition, though structured to allow for single entries too.

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Pickford injury a terrible blow but gives Vito chance to shine again

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‘Get fit soon, Jordan’

With great respect to Vito Mannone, who has had fine moments in goal for Sunderland and is quite capable of stepping back successfully into first team action, the loss of Jordan Pickford for up to two months can be seen only as a cruel and massive setback.

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Burnley Who are You?: ‘I’d take Larsson, Defoe and Pickford if Heaton left’

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Andy Robinson: ‘three points please’

 
Let us meet Andy Robinson*, our Burnley ‘Who are you?’ volunteer for both forthcoming games between us, at Turf Moor in the Premier League on Saturday and at our place in the FA Cup a week later. Andy, who says he hasn’t missed many home games in 30 years, loyally wants and predicts wins for his team in both games but, when you return for his follow-up thoughts on the cup match next week, has an interesting view on league vs cup. Here is his look ahead to Saturday’s crunch match at the bottom (note that his shopping list of players he’d be happy to take from Sunderland preceded news of the Jordan Pickford injury) …

Salut! Sunderland: Presumably you’d take defeat in the cup game provided you get three points a week earlier?

Andy Robinson: I’d sell a kidney for three points at the moment so yes.

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New Year message to Ellis: please don’t cut David Moyes short

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Jake asks: ‘can Moyes rely on money being available to do what’s needed?’

The jury is probably still out on both David Moyes and Ellis Short. Sunderland’s recent run has given hope but that hope will disintegrate if we do not continue to pick up points, from the higher-placed clubs as well as fellow-strugglers. This is where Ellis Short comes in: is he simply being canny, letting it be known through his chief executive Martin Bain that no money is available for the transfer window, whereas Moyes actually has at least some room for manoeuvre? Or is he really willing to risk a massive cut in the value of the club he wants to sell, hoping Moyes’s threadbare squad can hack it but ready to let it sink into the Championship if it does not? Alex McMahon offers some thoughts on these issues…

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Burnley and Liverpool Guess the Scores. Prizes at the treble

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Liverpool’s ultimately easy 4-1 win against Stoke City confirms what we already knew – that Monday’s game against Jurgen Klopp’s side will be tough. Even if Simon Mignolet keeps his place and makes more errors than usual, they have bags of goals in them.

That makes Saturday’s game all the more important. The good work of the past eight games, producing 12 points and giving Sunderland a fighting chance of getting out of trouble, would be undermined if we came a cropper at Turf Moor unless we then rose to the occasion at the Stadium of Light two days later.

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