There was, of course, one thing much worse than staying in and watching Blackburn v Sunderland on the box: going to Ewood Park to see it. Pete Sixsmith presented apologies for absence from a meeting at work to make the transPennines journey on a wet, miserable night and is grateful he can at least look back on the fish and chips, the pie, the Wagon Wheels and the ale …

Let’s start with the positives from our epic clash with those footballing maestros from Ewood Park Monday night.
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Image: Addick-tedKevin

Behind the belligerence and the bombast, Sir Alex Ferguson reputedly has a sense of humour. Just as well; he’s going to need it …

Sir Alex Ferguson withdrew “with heavy heart” last night from the race for Jordan Henderson’s signature after Sunderland flatly rejected a Wayne Rooney+cash bid for the exciting young midfielder.
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No goals, no great creativity, precious few thrills – and yet they’re queueing up to say what they think. First Monsieur Salut! with his immediate post-match thoughts, later Pete Sixsmith will doubtless tell us the highlight of his evening occurred on the other side of the Pennines long before kickoff. Between those two grumps, let’s hear from a deeply unimpressed Luke Harvey …

As I jumped in my best friend’s car to nip up to the pub, and avoid the admittedly rather short walk, I was told Monday night’s match would either be “brilliant, or very bad”.

I laughed at my friend’s naivety, how could he be so daft? “Oh it’s going to be awful. This match will be truly, truly awful.” I replied, entirely seriously as well. He laughed, I laughed and we went and watched the truly, truly awful match together.
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At a wet Ewood Park, my star was easy to choose after this disappointing goalless draw.
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Image: Tim Boyd

This may be a controversial view among Salut! Sunderland readers, but what more was Arsène Wenger supposed to say about the Jack Wilshere sending off?

We’ve been quick here to deplore the lack of consistency – okay, let’s be even more blunt and say the hypocrisy – shown by the Arsenal manager when it comes to foul play and cheating. Those famously selective powers of observation have let him down on numerous occasions when a few well-chosen words would have sent out an honest, dignified message.
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There are loads of people for whom international breaks are heaven sent. Maybe we’ll see things that way when Darren Bent is banging in goals for England and Jordan Henderson is showing just how good he is. But not just yet. Tomorrow night is the sort of occasion some of us live for – proper league football. For our return to Premier League action, we face Blackburn Rovers away. …

I’ve been to Ewood Park a few times.

On the most recent trips there, I’ve seen us beaten once – unjustly – in the FA Cup during Peter Reid’s second championship season, and a 0-0 opening game draw that seemed to set us up for a season that would end a bit better than what we achieved: bottom place.

After the second of those matches, a low, unseen bollard managed to rip the back bumper off my car though I couldn’t really blame Peter Reid for that.

Tomorrow, we’re looking for a big performance against, on paper, weaker opponents that those against whom we’ve fared best so far.

The weekend results saw us slip a few places down the table, exposing our lack of wins in the opening phase. Whoever Steve Bruce finds he ha savailable for the game wil need to be in tip-top form if we are to grab our first away win, an donly second Premier victory, of the season.

For those who missed it yesterday, Tony Sassine*, an editor at the Vital Blackburn Rovers site, tells us what is right and wrong with Big Sam’s team, and predicts a 1-1 draw …
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When the cry went out for help (during Monsieur Salut!’s post-op but continuing incapacity), Bill Taylor took himself off to Uruguay, Chile and Argentina. But he did leave behind smashing reminiscences of Roker Park – which you can see by clicking here – and now answers our plea for some sort of story to go with two of his holiday snaps …

I cannot tell a lie – well, I can but I won’t – this post is being cobbled together at the request of the Salut! Sunderland slavemaster to justify running two photos I sent him from a recent visit to Buenos Aires, one of which has absolutely nothing to do with football but which tickled his fancy. I like a challenge.

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At last, the Premier is back. Readers have drifted off in droves during the international break -though I know a few people who would dearly like to visit Salut! Sunderland but come up against cyberspace brick walls – and we face an almighty task in bringing them back.

Meanwhile …

Blackburn Rovers v Sunderland: another chance to do the business on the road.

Not for the first time, we approached the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw to be the Rovers fan to preview the game. That’s mentioned only because, again, he – or his office -felt no need to offer the courtesy of a reply. So off we went Down Under, where we unearthed Tony Sassine*, a fan since very early boyhood and owner of a willing pair of hands at the Vital Blackburn site …

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We’ve had our say – click here – about how to keep the grasping hands of the “big club” Brands off Jordan Henderson.

In Fleet Street and at Murdoch Sky Towers, the football hacks are drumming up speculation about interest from the fading bigwigs of English football. Chelsea are said to have been tracking the lad for months.

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Change, says Pete Sixsmith with what he terms “apologies to the late, great Sam Cooke”, is gonna come. Dylan had similar thoughts (“Come gather round people …”). Pete’s belief is that the obscene spectacle of Liverpool FC’s disintegration, and the unsavoury air over Old Trafford, may be symptoms of a malaise that will lead to an overdue Premier League revolution …

Is it just me, or do I detect a change coming in the Premier League this year? Are we seeing the end of the Big Four period of domination? Are some of the middle ranking clubs ready to take over the mantle of European contenders from the perpetual participants?
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