Sunderland (0) 1 - 1 (1) Arsenal
Stadium of Light, Saturday 27th October 2001
FA Barclaycard Premiership
Mixed feelings about this one. Getting a draw away to
Sunderland isn't that bad, but we were looking good at
1-0 up, and missed a penalty at 1-1. Then again, perhaps
we escaped worse, Sunderland having had a goal disallowed
in injury time.
Arsenal started with Upson at left-back (didn't do bad)
and Sol partnering Keown. It was all change up front as
Kanu and Wiltord started. Pires, Henry, and Bergkamp all
started on the bench (but didn't stay there).
It was 5 minutes before half time before Kanu scored the opener.... eventually. Wiltord put him clear through on the keeper with a defence-splitting pass. Kanu's first effort was blocked by the goalie, but he came back and took his
time before chipping past the defenders he'd given time to
get back.
The Nigerian had had a couple of half chances before that.
One after a nice run and dummy, the other a flick on as
Campbell's header from a corner was going goalwards. The
latter chance caught the crossbar on its way out.
Peter Reid gee-ed (sp?) his boys up at half time, but it
was a moment of magic from Highbury old-boy Stefan Schwarz
which levelled things 5 minutes later. The ball came to him
off Parlour as Arsenal tried to beat off an attack in the penalty box. It fell to Stefan just outside the box on the left,
and he flicked it up before lobbing Wrighty beautifully
inside the far top corner and in off the post.
Then Freddie Ljungberg won the penalty. He ran into
tht box for a great Kanu pass, and his foot was taken
away from behind just as he was about to shoot.
Henry (our first sub)
wasn't on the pitch yet, and curiously it was Vieira who
stepped up... to blast it high and wide.
Arca scored a header from a nice Phillips ball inh the dying seconds
of injury time. There was
mayhem for a while as Sunderland players staff and fans celebrated. The ref didn't give the goal but for a while it
was very unclear what he was giving. It looked like there might have been a penalty claim as Quinn went down, but in the end it
turned out to be a (correct) offside call.
See reports page
for list of links to reports on other sites.
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