I'm not too disappointed by the Blackburn Rovers defeat at the weekend because, for one thing, I thought it was the right result.

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Rovers were the better side and anything other than a win for them would have been something of an injustice.

I rate Rovers. Even before the game I was being optimistic when I predicted a draw.

Outside the top four teams I would say Blackburn are among the very best around and I expect them to be challenging for a top six finish this season.

Sunderland are going to find themselves facing a lot of teams like this, this season.

In the Championship, it was Sunderland who had more than the rest on just about every occasion.

But this season we are in the big league and we've got to get used to the idea that we are going to be not quite as good as a lot of sides when it comes either to the quality of our defence, quality of our midfield or quality of our attack.

It's a building process and in Mark Hughes and Rovers, we saw a manager and a club which has been slowly and steadily moving forward for several seasons in the Premier League now.

I'm as down as everyone that Sunderland lost at the weekend, but there's no point in belly-aching or feeling sorry for ourselves.

I think that was what Roy Keane was driving at in his post-match press conference – had his own team played poorly or Rovers been there for the taking, he could have got annoyed.

Instead, his team gave their all on the day and just came up a litte short against a classy side.

We just have to pick ourselves and move on, even though that isn't going to be easy with the next game being against Arsenal at the Emirates this weekend.