M Salut’s preference for leaving the momentous decision until we’ve completed our October AND November games was already controversially kind. One down after 28 seconds, without a forward on the pitch, it was looking almost irresponsibly benevolent. Pete Sixsmith, hardly a kneejerk Bruce Out man, is rapidly losing faith …

As I placed my well upholstered bottom on my well upholstered Ashburton Grove seat, I sat back in anticipation of a battling performance against an out of sorts Arsenal side.

Rather less than 60 seconds later, bottom was out of seat as Mignolet picked ball out of the net after Les Gunners had carved us open down the flank and the imperious van bloody Persie swept home a goal of breathtaking quality. Not quite the start we had hoped for, was it?

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He annoyed us by starting without a forward and nearly nicked a point. A Song renamed Cattermole might have been sent off. But it all went to script in the end (as it might have done a lot earlier). Steve Bruce‘s post-match e-mail regrets missed chances, but points to positives …

Dear Colin,

We had an awful start, just like the West Brom game, but again we showed enough resilience and fight to get back in the game.

It’s just a shame that [Robin] Van Persie, a world-class player, came up with piece of magic at the end. He is worth the entrance fee alone.

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This is where Pete Sixsmith captures the glory and shame, hope and despair, excitement and ennui of the Sunderland matchday experience. When, rarely, Pete is absent or delayed, a supersub does it for him and the seven-word verdict is preceded by an asterisk. Pete’s full analysis of the game will usually appear within a day or two.

Today? Going one down in 28 seconds was not quite was we expected. Nor was the distinct possibility that Van Persie might have had three more in the first 15 minutes. Starting without a forward – sorry, Steve, Sessegnon is a great little player, but he is not an out-and-out forward – seemed another wrong decision. And what happened then? Larsson struck a sublime free kick to equalise and Sunderland finished the second half on top. But despite dogged resistance in the second half, Van Persie replicated Larsson’s skill as a taker of free kicks. 2-1. Pete Sixsmith’s verdict is the one that counts: he was there. From the most unpromising of starts, and a selection decision I deplore, I thought we did produce the decent, heads-held-high performance Pete had demanded (though his judgement may be harsher). Oh, and had a certain Song been called Cattermole instead, his three yellow card offences would undoubtedly have turned to red.

The full Sixer’s Sevens archive – see link below – sums up what all Sunderland supporters feel, from darkest gloom to sublime elation, in the words one who is usually there …

Oct 16 2011 Arsenal (1) 2 SAFC (1) 1 Defended bravely but attacking options barely existed

Oct 1 2011 SAFC (2) 2 West Bromwich Albion (2) 2 Deserved point after a truly horrendous start

Sept 26 2011 Norwich City (1) 2 SAFC (0) 1 Absolutely no positives to take from this

Sept 18 2011 SAFC 4 (3) Stoke City (0) 0 What a difference the right selection makes

Sept 10 2011 SAFC (0) 1 Chelsea (1) 2 Comical defending hands Chelsea their regulation win

Aug 27 2011 Swansea City (0) 0 SAFC (0) 0 Uninspiring game. Both teams look like strugglers

Aug 23 2011 Carling Cup 2nd Round: Brighton & Hove Albion (0) 1 SAFC (0) 0 Abysmal team selection got what it deserved

Aug 20 2011 SAFC (0) 0 Newcastle United (0) 1 Totally outfought in dismal second half display

Aug 13 2011 Liverpool (1) 1 SAFC (0) 1 Came back well, better side second half

To see Sixer’s Sevens in full, click here. If an asterisk precedes the comment, the words that follow are the work of someone else because Pete is for once absent from the game or his verdict has been delayed …

** Want to write to the club about what you’ve seen, heard or read about the way things are going? Do it with the Salut! Sunderland engraved pen. Yours for just £2, post-free in the UK, by clicking here

The second week of a non-football fortnight, as it has been for those who care little for internationals, has been a busy old time at Salut! Sunderland. Here is a resume for readers who do not visit the site every day, starting with something that isn’t in the headline but should be …

Jonathan Wilson is widely acclaimed as one of the best football writers around. You can read him in The Guardian, in his own books (his Brian Clough biography is due out soon) and, as of this week, Salut! Sunderland.

A truly magical piece of writing, about an unbreakable attachment to Sunderland AFC passed down from one generation to the next, appeared first at the SB Info Plus website but was reproduced here with the permission both the writer and the site. Several people who read it were, like me, deeply moved by Jonathan’s words.

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Arsenal v Sunderland. We’ve heard from an Arsenal fan (click here if you missed it). But what exactly do we want from this traditionally difficult game? Pete Sixsmith has a modest shopping list …

On Sunday morning, the alarm clock will be set for 3.45am and I shall be waiting at Thinford Roundabout for the coach at 5.15, ready for a sleepy trip down to Ashburton Grove.

It’s a long day, we won’t get home until 10pm and there is every chance that it will be a defeat, heavy or otherwise. So, what do I want from Sunday?

* I want to walk away from Asburton Grove with my head held high after witnessing a determined and gritty Sunderland performance that makes me proud to follow one of the oldest and most distinguished clubs in Europe.

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Well, when not bragging about the Salut! Sunderland exclusive - Sunderland, the play, wowing Parisian theatregoers – we were on a hunt for a Gooner. Piers Morgan haughtily turned us away last season, so we asked Mike Amos, Shildon lad but Arsenal nut (his dad was a Londoner, but then so was mine so he should still rethink his allegiances). Sadly Mike, newly retired from close on half a century at the Northern Echo, admitted he had lost touch a little with matters Arsenal. A case of “I know I am, I’m sure I am, I’m Arsenal till half time”. Rupert and Monty were too busy finding each other (for those familiar with the Emirates public address system). So Mike’s son, Owen, a BBC journalist who doesn’t really think the Gunners will go down, stepped up from the bench …

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………………………………………………………………………… Dear

Sunderland have been rubbishing the weekend talk of Steve Bruce’s job being on the line with Martin O’Neill poised to take over. I am inclined to believe the club’s version, as filtered through the Sunderland Echo and Journal sports staff, that his job is – as of now at any rate – no more in danger than the Queen’s. But that doesn’t mean we’re all happy bunnies. This is not our first Dear Steve of the season. Andy Nichol is a stern critic of the way SAFC too often do things and would dearly like Steve to pay heed to his thoughts (adapted here from a message to the Blackcats list) as a nervy Sunday afternoon at Arsenal approaches …

Dear Steve,

I will be there – living in London I’d struggle to find an excuse. But the harsh fact is that we are not worth watching – workmanlike yes and, who knows, we may even grind out another 0-0, but with only Sessegnon to provide any hope of some creativity/flair it’ll be backs to the wall all afternoon.

No Bendtner either. We’re one-paced and lacking in width and God knows what formation you’ll be putting out.

I have been reduced to wondering out loud with the question: “4-6-0 anyone?”

Could we be in for a repeat of the Brighton debacle?

I am sorry, Steve, but regardless of where we finish this season, we’re one ugly team.

All the best,

Andy

The script is depressingly easy to write. Two clubs go into battle with similarly pressing needs to lift the early-season gloom, but one of them is Arsenal, they’re at home and unlike us, they’ll probably have an established PL striker to call on (Bendtner, of course, being unavailable). Pete Sixsmith wonders whether the fighting spirit we showed to get a draw, though no more, against West Brom can help us prolong an unbeaten record in London that stretches back to April 2010 …

At 3.06 on Saturday, the knitting needles were out as 35,000 of us contemplated a very public execution of Steve Bruce, preferably on the pitch at half time. The first draft of the Seven (Sixer’s seven-word matchday verdict – ed) had been written (“Inconceivable that Bruce can survive after this”) and, although we basked in glorious autumn sunshine, the atmosphere was icy cold.

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Image: Wonker

While idly surfing for a way of extending velkommen to the Danish equivalent of “welcome to the madhouse”, I came across a comment that “Swedish is a language, Danish a throat infection”. it didn’t help much, but at least it made me chuckle.

Nicklas Bendtner, brought in on loan from Arsenal for a year, is a confident young man and if he has, in the eyes of some, an excess of that confidence, we have no need to worry about his mental state (or, so far as can be told, his throat).

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If you thought Steve Bruce had problems with what he suggested was the “pathetic” hysteria of hypercritical supporters of his own club, stand back and consider the torrent of abuse now heading in the general direction of Arsène Wenger.

Comments on a match report at the Red London site after Man Utd 8 Arsenal 2 began with Nealmustgo’s kneejerk “bye bye Arsene that’s your lot”.

Darren Dommett exclaimed “what a total sham wenger needs to buy or go” and Danish Gooner offered his own slice of bacon “WENGER OUT NOW !!!!!” before the oh-so-eloquent “Arsenal” summoned all his expressive powers to declare: “Wenger can burn in hell, just dont take arsenal with you, you f****** french frog.”

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