What a strange match.
Things were looking fairly even to start with. We got off to
another slow one, and Sunderland certainly should have scored
when Agnew hit one straight at Seaman from around the penalty
spot. I think we'd also had a close range effort cleared off
the line by the time Sunderland got their first red card -
Martin Scott getting his second yellow for a "tackle" on
Dixon. In the aftermath of this, while Dix was getting treatment,
Peter Reid came onto the pitch to hassle the ref, and got dragged
off by a policeman. Then the ref went off the pitch to have
a word with him and, as far as I could see, ended up sending
Reid off down the tunnel, possibly showing him a card in the
process.
Sometime later tottenham reject Stewart went up for a ball with,
I think, Merson. Stewart's hand went up and touched the ball,
then he landed ina heap and I think was trying to make out
that he'd been fouled. The ref talked to him for ages, and gave
him a yellow, also his second. It was probably for the handball,
but maybe somehting he said added to things, or possibly the
fact that he'd made a meal out of Merse's challenge.
The second ha;f was bizarre. Sunderland had clearly been given
instructions not to leave their own half. They would literally
take the ball to the half-way line, hoof it into our half or
into touch, and stop there and wait for us to attack again,
Every time Coton had a goal kick he would aim for the Arsenal
dug-out.
We kept attacking, a little ineffectively it has to be said,
but under the circumstances I felt the crowd were getting a
bit over-impatient. Eventually, after some amazing goal-mouth
scrambles where the ball just had to go in but didn't, Hartson
got in with a close range header.
Of course then Sunderland started trying to play football
again, and got frighteningly close once or twice. We were a
bit out of shape because Winterburn had been taken off for
Shaw (we could have taken all our defence off for the half-hour
preceding the goal!). Shaw had a good spell, and nearly scored
with a Merson style long-range effort.
In the end we made it safe with a minute to go. Vieira had
been taken off for a really excellent new player who's name
I don't know but they had him dressed up as Ray Parlour. He
took the ball into the penalty area, squared up to put a cra
crap cross over, then fooled everyone by blasting it into the
net. Quite a relief.
I dare say Reid's gonna be claiming a biased ref on telly later,
should be fun to watch!
No-one had a particularly good game for us. Except Parlour hwo
was great for his few minutes of action. Hartson scored but missed
some that would have been easier to score as well. Adams seemd
okay but as I say, not a lot of defending to do for long periods:
that doesn't really count as lasting the full 90!
Second in the table, on goal difference, pending Liverpool etc
playing over the next couple of days.
Under the circumatsance, best just to say it was a good win, and
that it was all just to weird to mean anything at all aprt
from 3 points.
report by Rupe.
(fuller report from Derek to follow...)
FA Carling Premiership
Arsenal vs Sunderland Sat Sep 28th 1996
Teams
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Keown, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Platt,
Vieira, Merson, Wright, Hartson
Subs: Shaw (Winterburn 71), Parlour (Vieira 87),
Linighan, Rose, Lukic
Sunderland: Coton, Scott, Bracewell, Ball, Melville, Gray, Stewart,
Agnew, Hall, Howey, Rae
Subs: Kubicki(Rae 26), Bridges (Bracewell 75),
Russell (Gray 81), Smith, Perez
Result : Arsenal (0) 2 Sunderland (0) 0
Scorers: Hartson 73, Parlour 88
Bookings: Stewart, Scott, Bracewell
Sent off: Scott 21, Stewart 39
Att : 38016
Referee : P Danson (Leics)
Hard to know what to say about this game. After the second sending off
late in the 1st half we were treated to a somewhat farcical second, with
Sunderland bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase defending in
depth, and Arsenal labouring witlessly away at overcoming such a tactic.
If he'd been at Twickenham Tony Coton would have been cheered off the
park after a superb display of kicking into touch.
The first 20 minutes of the game brought little hint of what was to
come. In fact it was Sunderland who started much the brighter, despite
what seemed a negative tactic of only playing Paul Stewart up front and
getting 10 men behind the ball when defending. When they had the ball
though, they broke quite sharply and Alex Rae had two early long range
efforts which might have yielded goals. The first he mishit, it fell to
Stewart in the area, but he shot weakly straight at Seaman. The second
was also comfortably fielded by the keeper.
The visitors should have taken the lead soon after that. Bracewell
played a simple ball through the middle which caught the Arsenal defence
square and found Agnew's run into the area. He neatly turned Winterburn,
but then shot wildly over the bar from about 12 yards.
Meanwhile at the other end Arsenal did get the ball in the net only to
have it ruled out for offside. Merson broke down the middle and slipped
the ball to Wright on his left. Wrighty finished clinically, beating
Coton at his near post, only to look up and see the linesman's flag
raised. The same "ref's assistant" also earned the ire of the North Bank
fans by failing to spot what looked like a fairly obvious handball
earlier.
Stewart then got booked for using his hand in an attempt to divert the
ball into the Arsenal goal, and soon after that the left back Martin
Scott was ordered off for two bookable fouls in the space of a few
minutes. The first was an ugly high and late lunge at Dixon, and while
the second was more mistimed than malicious it was extremely rash
bearing in mind that he'd just been booked.
After this Arsenal, not surprisingly, began to dominate and several good
chances went begging with Hartson the principal culprit. First Merson
slanted in a cross from the left which picked the Welshman out
completely unmarked at the far post about 6 yards out. Somehow he
managed to glance a header wide of goal. He also missed Arsenal's best
other chance of the half. Following a lovely intricate move on the edge
of the area between Merson, Wright and Platt, the latter lofted a chip
out to Hartson who'd found some space to the left of goal. His left foot
angled volley from about 10 yards whistled several feet wide of the far
post.
Platt also went close after a good run from about 40 yards out took him
all the way into the left side of the area, but his left foot effort
from an angle was deflected into the side netting inches wide of the
near post. A right wing cross from Keown was then headed up into the air
by WWW, the Arsenal fans screamed for a push on him, Hartson challenged
Coton, Sunderland yelled obstruction, the ball dropped to Wright again
and he stabbed a shot past Hartson and Coton only to see it cleared off
the line by Melville.
Stewart then became the 2nd Sunderland player to be sent off. He went up
with Bouldy for a ball just outside the centre circle in the Arsenal
half. Obviously claiming a push in the back, he put his hands up in an
attempt to catch the ball. The ref however, blew for the handball rather
than a foul and sent Stewart off for a second bookable offence. Which
was probably a bit harsh, but he would probably been accused of
inconsistency had he "used common sense", having earlier handed out a
yellow card for deliberate handball. You'd also have thought that
Stewart would have more sense than to handle having already been booked
for handball. Then again, he signed for Spurs once, so he's obviously
not overendowed with brain cells.
Highbury settled back in anticipation of the 4 goals needed to send
Arsenal to the top of the league, and the remaining few minutes didn't
do much to disabuse us of this notion. The Gunners again nearly had a
goal when Wright chased clear on the left, checked back and held the
ball before playing it inside to Vieira who was charging into the box.
The young midfielder perhaps pushed it just too far in front of him with
his first touch and Coton was able to came out and make a good
smothering save at his feet.
The second half was a different story. Sunderland came out, obviously
with strict instructions not to venture over the half way line, and we
were treated to the bizarre spectacle of Coton and his defenders booting
the ball into touch in the Arsenal half every time they got the ball.
Frustratingly, for 25 minutes or so Arsenal seemed not to have any idea
of how to break down a 9 man defence. There was one early chance when
Wright cleverly glanced a header from a Merson cross just inside the far
post, but Coton got down well to save and Vieira's follow up from the
rebound was blocked.
Eventually the Gunners cottoned on to the fact that Sunderland weren't
going to make any pretence of attacking at all, and Adams moved
permanently up front. But they still didn't get the ball wide
consistently enough, and were frustrated by the linesman's flag again
when Hartson and Platt both had the ball in the net from headers. There
was also one incredible goalmouth scramble when the ball somehow didn't
go in. Though the fact that it was Hartson and Winterburn who were most
actively involved perhaps explains it.
With just under 20 minutes left Rice pulled off Winterburn, sent on
another forward, Paul Shaw and pushed Merson wide on the left. This had
the desired effect immediately as Shaw picked up another desperate
clearance wide on the left and turned to chip in a cross which Hartson
gratefully headed home from the 6-yd line. Shaw followed this up with a
good run and shot from 25 yards which went only a few feet wide of the
far post.
Reid then abandoned the no-attack tactic and sent on the young striker
Bridges who immediately began to cause one or two problems. Indeed there
was one heart stopping moment when it seemed Sunderland would get an
equaliser. A fairly dangerous break was stopped at the expense of a
corner, which wasn't cleared, Vieira trod on the ball to leave a
Sunderland player (Ball?) a shot from about 10 yards. Fortunately Keown
managed to get a block in.
With a few minutes left Parlour came on, and soon afterwards stunned
everyone by scoring. Merson broke, passed inside to Shaw who in turn
passed to his right to pick out the unmarked Parlour's run into the
area. Everybody relaxed in anticipation of another poorly directed
cross, but instead Pizza whacked a vicious angled shot across Coton and
just inside the far post, to further add to the bizarreness of the game.
There was still time for Arsenal to miss a couple of further good
chances as Sunderland now left more gaps at the back as they pushed
forward, but eventually the ref brought the whole thing to an end.
Arsenal were frustratingly laboured and uninventive with their attempts
to break the nine men down, but it would be harsh to overly criticise
the performance. There was probably some staleness following their
midweek exertions, and Sunderland were very well organised defensively.
Prior to this game they had conceded the fewest goals in the
Premiership.
Also hard to rate individual performances, but anyway here are the
HSBPRI ratings:
Seaman 7.0 After the first 15 minutes really had nothing to do.
Dixon 6.0 Perhaps not entirely his fault, but didn't see much of
the ball at the time when Arsenal needed to get wide and
behind the Sunderland defence.
Winterburn 5.5 Ditto
Adams 5.5 Probably the worst game I've seen him have in recent
years in terms of giving the ball away. Still the old
Adams spirit as shown by throwing himself at crosses in
the Sunderland area though.
Bould 6.0 Again not a lot to do defensively, but I guess breaking
down massed defences was never his forte.
Keown 6.5 Ditto, though he did get us out of trouble a couple of
times in defence.
Platt 6.5 I thought he showed a reasonable amount of effort in the
second half, and might have had a couple of goals.
Vieira 6.0 Hopefully the 2 week rest will do him good.
Merson 7.0 Again the only player who looked at all likely to break
down the Sunderland defence.
Parlour 7.0 Can't really judge him on 5 minutes, but I've got to
give him some credit for the goal.
Wright 6.5 Can't really think about anything to say. Unfortunately
most of the good chances were falling to Hartson.
Hartson 6.0 Missed a couple in the 1st half when a goal would have
opened the game up. However he did eventually score. My
feeling is that if Wenger is as good a coach as reported
then we could yet see Johnny becoming a decent player.
Shaw 7.0 Made both goals and generally showed good touch and
awareness for which I would make him man of the match.
report by Derek Brownjohn
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