Yawn, Arsenal. The endless crawl to 4th, players preoccupied with group selfies in their tighty whities after enthralling narrow wins against West Brom, a manager who drones on and on about how he nearly signed 'insert player's name here' when he was 7 but didn't because he couldn't fit his Game Boy into his suitcase...let me guess, a 2-0 second leg win just for the hell of it? 

Another well-intentioned performance, ending as we knew it would, in nothing. We’ve had plenty of frustrating afternoons this season and there'll no doubt be a few more to come, hoping against hope however that the law of averages comes into play against Hull on Tuesday.

How to get the Batman and Robin thing right: dismantle your reliably frail foes in a derby demolition

How to get it wrong: give a performance as bad to watch as the Clooney/Schumacher/Arnie stinker!

Another well-intentioned performance, ending as we knew it would, in nothing. We’ve had plenty of frustrating afternoons this season and there'll no doubt be a few more to come, hoping against hope however that the law of averages comes into play against Hull on Tuesday.

 

Seems, theoretically, a decent few games are on deck for Gus and the lads; Hull is a game they can surely get something from, home to Villa is almost a freebie, West Ham are rolling downhill without crash pads and then cometh the derby against some barely known, grudge holding, stone faced weirdo!

Unfortunately, we’re Sunderland and we’re not very good at winning football matches. Thankfully, Hull aren't either. Couldn't even hazard a guess as to what the initial Gus gameplan was meant to be; before the introductions of Alvarez and Van Aanholt gave us a much-needed shot in the arm, the performance was up (or down) there with the most disjointed and ineffective we’ve produced in many a year. Still, they say any point away from home is a good one, and looking at the table this afternoon, I suppose I'm inclined to agree.

After the Stoke debacle and the first half at Newcastle we certainly deserved that. 

 
Jozy, you little rascal! Two goals on his debut for Toronto on Saturday night, improving upon his total over a season and a half's worth of football for Sunderland. Typical, bizarre and humorous in a tragic kind of way.

Superb game of football at the Bernabeu last night, end-to-end and very sporting on the pitch, if not elsewhere. Schalke wiped the floor with Real Madrid in the first half, and it was only thanks to Modric and of course, Ronaldo being Ronaldo, that they survived the onslaught in the second.

Hertha to beat Schalke at the weekend. 

 

Jozy, you little rascal! Two goals on his debut for Toronto on Saturday night, improving upon his total over a season and a half's worth of football for Sunderland. Typical, bizarre and humorous in a tragic kind of way.

 

According to EA Sports Jozy will be knocking them in for fun by around the 2017/18 season after joining Juventus or Real or Fulham (another of their odd specialty cases). 

To be honest, I wouldn't rule that out. Apart from the bit about Fulham of course, it seems a little far-fetched for them to pay the £25m he'll no doubt be valued at by then.

Oh dear, Jose.

Oh dear, Jose.

 

 

Oh no, the nation's nonexistent love affair with Chelsea is in turmoil!

Always fine with a pile up at the altar of Moronho and Chelsea but to have Graeme Souness decrying all dem dirty foreigners for ungentlemanly conduct was pretty hilarious considering his own outstanding contribution to skullduggery and bastardliness as a player and a manager over several decades. You could also see young Thierry biting his tongue fairly sharply so as to not make the same point.

Jose did the exact same thing last year in the first leg against Atletico and was spectacularly punished for it in the second. Masterplans and everything else aside, his approach to big games seems to be having his team do as little as possible. What a performance from PSG, though. Between this and Monaco at the Emirates, you wonder if Ligue 1 gets the credit it deserves.

I think it's more a case of the premier league being overrated?

It's both, a lot people were practically falling out of their chairs laughing when Arsenal drew Monaco and PSG are always regarded as a big fish in a small, grey pond.

I can't help wondering what would've happened if Ben Foster hadn't had that brain fart at the end of the first West Brom game but boy am I glad he did! Suddenly we're bound for Wembley, Agbonlahor's flying, Benteke's flying and N'Zogbia is at least partially levitating. It obviously aids the cause when you're playing a team who were utterly putrid but we played good stuff regardless. Michael, the supporters weren't exactly enamored with Poyet before, is this a step beyond? A quick sacking before the Newcastle game has worked before!