Just seen a stat thats says you's havent won up here since 2003 (not sure how many games played mind) so generally means you are due a win up here, whenever there is a particular statistic we generally lose!
Dislike chimp face poyet greatly, Sunderland are playing well lately as well. But they are patchy in front of goal, if fletcher gets scoring again I feel they will be comfortably clear of relegation come the end of the season. We should win but until we become more ruthless and start creating the clear scoring opportunities our possession play deserves we will drop points more often than we should. I think a draw is on the cards, but a narrow win either way wouldn't surprise me at all. Hope it's in our favour obviously! Anyone travelling up I hope it's a good day for you, super fans!
We have a lot in common, except sadly the stripes! Saints seldom do what you expect them too, the bookies are always confused. How about a nice friendly draw?
Looking forward to the game - both sides play the right way (now that Gus has had a chance to impose his philosophy on us) so it should be a good game to watch. It could also go either way; I don't think any sensible fan from either side could say that any of a home win, an away win or the draw would be a "shock" result.
Do you mean he's already taught your boys how to time waste, commit sneaky, niggling fouls, dive and roll around like they've been snipered? That's what he did at Brighton and I hope he doesn't do it at Sunderland. He'll also blame everyone else but himself when something goes wrong. Nothing against you boys. I'm just not a Poyet fan.
No I mean holding on to the ball, being patient and well set up. All teams are guilty of the sort of gamesmanship you have described there unfortunately, its a symptom of the "modern game".
As soon as he went to Sunderland, I told my Sunderland supporting mates that the first thing he'll do is get you hard to beat. Villa aside, he seems to be doing that. Ps. When Lallana goes down against you guys, it won't be a dive, it'll just be those strong North seas winds
We are hard to beat now yes - we've only lost one of our last nine games and that was down to one shocking individual error against Villa (other than that moment, they could have played for a week and not looked like scoring). Southampton, despite recent form, are a different kettle of fish though and you will cause us more problems than Villa did. I think there will be goals in the game as we have been scoring (relatively) freely against teams that come at us, rather than sitting back like Norwich and Villa did.
More than we might realise at the moment - a Daily Mail reporter has just tweeted an "exclusive" that Sunderland DoF Roberto De Fanti has been sacked today..........
I hope you don't park the bus as if you do that, we probably won't score as your defence is quite good (stopping Man City from scoring) and our attack can be a bit predictable. Hope we don't get hit on the counter, but with our first choice back 5 back together, I'd be surprised if you get more than 1 goal, unless both teams go for it. Poyet at Brighton got a goal and then kept the ball and defended, so here's hoping we don't take a half to get into the game as by then it may be too late.
Sunderland director Roberto De Fanti sacked. Two Premier League clubs with a tradition of red and white stripes sack an Italian within a matter of days, and play each other tomorrow. How enthralling.
Something I've wondered. Does he get someone to write them or does he make them up himself..? Some of them are actually quite clever, and although England's favourite cheeky striker obviously isn't lacking in the grey matter department, I do think he gets help.
Well, here's a useful table - last ten games, though you can mess about with it as you wish. Just over the last ten games, you'd be running 11th in the division. http://weekendfootball.co.uk/analysis/form.asp?l=1&season=14&formtype=&gamescount=10 - it's a site I use once in a while when I need to reflect on recent performances relative to the other sides (just one glitch, it ignores goal difference). I wish I'd backed you a month ago to avoid the drop. I think we're going to lose this. No matter what's been said the squad will have had a little less sleep than normal and Sunderland are on a great run. The only thing that might put a spanner in that analysis is if Victor Wanyama is back. You'll recognise him: You'll assume that someone's parked a Challenger tank in the middle of the pitch wearing our kit. If he's playing (and fully fit) I reckon a draw. Vin
I think he probably gets supplied with the interesting stats, but judging by his (surprisingly engaging) twitter persona he's quite capable of coming up with his own puns. Actually now I think about it, he did once ask a fan if he could use his tweet to open the programme, which was nice.
The worst thing about Lineker is he's wasted as the presenter of MOTD, he'd make a better pundit than most of the chumps they get on.
