Sunderland

So near, so far: Wigan to Newcastle, Lens to Lorient

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Another instalment of French Fancies, Salut! Sunderland‘s occasional dip into football as it’s played on the other side of La Manche – with a comparison of tight competition in the top flights of both France and England and news of the latest phase of David Bellion’s footballing career …

It is time for M Salut to take another glance at the French Ligue 1. And there is one striking similarity between what is going on there and in our own Premier League season.

Look at ninth position in the PL and eighth in Ligue 1: our friends up the road at Newcastle United on 36 points in England, Lorient on 36 in France.

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Arsenal Soapbox: Miliband right to turn his back on Gunners

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Forget Louise Taylor, good as she is. Put the reports from the two Echos and Journal to one side. This is the essential post-match read. Pete Sixsmith looks back with relish on a grand day out, leaving us unbeaten in the Smoke after visits to Tottenham, Chelsea, Fulham and Arsenal – and brings you a David Miliband scooplet …

That’s better. Everything we didn’t do at the crumbling ruin known as Goodison Park last week, we did at the ultra-modern Ashburton Grove this week.

Last week, we were disorganised and disappointing. On Saturday, for the full 94 minutes, our players kept their shape, remained focused and took a deserved point off a team with a genuine chance of winning the League title, the Champions League and the FA Cup.

We got a break when the assistant referee put his flag up a split second too early and, wrongly, gave Arshavin offside. But who is to say that Arshavin would have scored had the flag not gone up? Mignolet pulled out of his challenge because he knew that the whistle had gone. The kind of game that the young Belgian was having suggested that he would have comfortably dispossessed the Arsenal player.

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Arsenal 0 Sunderland 0 Observed: what Barca couldn’t, we could

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For the second successive week, The Observer caught our Pete Sixsmith on his way out of an away game. He was in a lot happier mood this time, and with good reason. But as usual, we start with the opposition view …

JOSH BEDNASH, Myclubarsenal.wordpress.com

This was really disappointing, especially after United lost in the week. We had a chance to close the gap on them but Sunderland played well, harried us and gave us no space to play our football. We looked jaded and were far from our best. We missed Fábregas, Van Persie and Walcott, as well as Song. There was no creativity today and it’s so cruel that we are going to Barcelona with nowhere near our best side for the second year running. The second half today was a bit better than the first, but without Van Persie we don’t have any options up front. I prefer Chamakh to Bendtner, but it didn’t happen for him today.

Ratings
Szczesny 7; Sagna 6, Djourou 6, Koscielny 6, Clichy 7; Diaby 5 (Rosicky 77 6), Denílson 6 (Chamakh 61 6); Nasri 8, Wilshere 7, Arshavin 7; Bendtner 7

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Steve Bruce: hearts in mouths but point was earned

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In his post-match e-mail from the Emirates. Steve Bruce gets it about right and salutes Danny Welbeck’s heartening return …

Dear Colin,

Our resilience was back, which was good to see. We needed a big performance because we let ourselves down at Everton last week.

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Salut! Sunderland’s week: Everton calamity, Arsenal jitters, our new look

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Mrs Logic

Before we offer a quick glance back at the week as seen by Salut! Sunderland, stand by for some news of our own: the site is about to undergo a long-overdue redesign. The idea is to make it look less like a blog, more a magazine. If there are things you’d hate to see go, features you could happily do without, links you find useful/a waste of space … etc etc … here is the chance to sound off. Older readers may remember Shots at Sleeman in the Sunday Sun. This can be Shots at Sixer & Salut …

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Arsenal v SAFC: nothing to match Bergkamp – or the Roker Roar

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Without wishing to start a civil war, we can safely state that when it comes to using the word Gooner, our second Arsenal “Who are You?” previewer, Tony Briggs*, does not quite see eye to eye with our first, Tom Watt. Tony describes himself as a “third generation Gooner” and proves, with his responses, to be a football fan – sorry again, Tom (he dislikes fan, too) – of the old school. Bring back standing, get people to stay to the end of games, end the ubiquitous matchday razzmatazz. Oh, and 3-0 to the Arsenal! …


How shocked were you by the Carling Cup final defeat to Birmingham and what did you make of the Orient replay?

It’s what we come to expect of The Arsenal now, not taking our chances when they mattered; Birmingham did. Orient was a game where there was many empty seats because alot of the fair weather fans made excuses and didn’t show up. Good all round performance and Bendtner and Chamakh getting the goals they needed to boost confidence.

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Dodgy award goes Stoke City’s way

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Each month, if we remember, we make a modest award to the supporter of another club who has impressed most with his or her answers to the “Who are You?” questionnaire …

Salut! Sunderland likes to cause the odd surprise.

Looking back over the “Who are You?” contributions from opposing supporters in February, we were – as often – spoilt for choice.

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Arsenal’s 12th man: Danson in the dark at Highbury

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Source: Rankopedia

My first notion was to direct visiting Arsenal supporters immediately to Tom Watt’s great interview. On second thoughts, they should go there only after a quick look at Pete Sixsmith‘s amusing reminiscences on a past Arsenal v SAFC encounter enlivened – even if Pete’s detail may be open to question – by a man for whom the chant “You Don’t Know What You’re Doing” may well have been composed …

Paul Danson. Remember him? Premier League referee from the mid 90s. Came from Leicester; refereed the game at Highbury in September 1996.

That’s the one. Useless little sod who sent off Martin Scott and Paul Stewart before half time for absolutely nothing and left us trying to defend as best we could with nine men. A game never to be forgotten in the annals of Great Crimes Perpetrated on Sunderland AFC.

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