Depending on one's culture, Black Cats are known either for good luck or ill. A more fortuitous goal than Sunderland's winner is hard to imagine. 99 Red Balloons was a pop song from my youth; just one did for Liverpool on Saturday. It may not have exploded on impact but Liverpool's season certainly did. Perhaps the incompetent officials - all four of them - should be credited with a collective assist for not knowing the rules. But is anyone surprised? Will there be repercussions? No and no. Never mind; four defeats from nine neither justifies MOTD top billing nor Alan Hansen's ludicrous pre-season predictions for his old club.

Arsenal are fourth and may soon be climbing Auntie Beeb's (who know about such things) priority list. We are currently fifth on the Match of the Day scheme of things, just ahead of the games at Everton and Stoke. The Stadium of Light did not monopolise predictably poor officialdom, though. Our whistleblower gave a ridiculous back-pass against Birmingham then made us take the resultant free-kick from where the defender intercepted (8 yards out) rather than where their goalie handled (4 yards out). But is anyone surprised? Will there be repercussions? No and no.

Birmingham fouls, some petty, some cynical, went unpunished for over an hour. No regular to N5 could have been surprised when the again brilliant Song saw yellow. Perhaps with an eye on Tuesday we almost let the Brummies back in but it's now 7 wins from 7 at Fortress E******s, including 17 goals in our four PL matches. Spurs managed just 21 PL goals at Sh*te Hart Lane in their 2008/09 campaign. Kind of puts things into perspective, doesn't it? The four goals we've conceded therein comprise a deflection and three goalkeeping howlers. Gooners are impatient (think Mambo Number 5) for a little bit (more) of Ramsey and Wilshere - but also absent from Saturday's starting line-up were Sagna, Clichy, Denilson, Arshavin, Nasri and Eduardo, to name but six. How, prey tell, is Arsene supposed to convince at least two more of the world class signings you crave to compete with that lot in the next transfer window, assuming he was mindful to do so (I'm even more convinced than ever that he isn't)?

Le Boss, not renown for hyperbole, said after the Blackburn 6-2 that this team can "go as far as they want". Issue 200 of The Gooner is far less downbeat than usual; even Talking Reds and The Highbury Spy have hidden the rusty razor blades. Given my predilection for contrarianism, I may soon replace my glass, which is half-full, with one that is half-empty.

But pride of place this weekend to a man whose glass is completely empty as he's obviously devoured its alcoholic contents: Big Fat Sam. See the BBC website for this epic Colemanball. Commenting after Sunday's 3-2 win against Burnley, he said: "It's me (sic) birthday tomorrow so it's an early Christmas present from the lads." And to think he wanted to become England manager. It just goes to show YET AGAIN how lucky we are to have our French manager.