Arsenal missed out on a vital Premier League win against Sunderland at the weekend, but the Gunners appear to be unhappy with the draw
Manager Richard Keys has claimed Arsenal will “hold a meeting” on Monday after Sunderland moved an advertisement during the weekend’s match, with the broadcaster claiming such a move would put Gunners players at risk.
The Premier League leaders were held to a dramatic 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light on Saturday night, with former Arsenal defender Dan Ballard initially taking the lead. Bukayo Saka equalized for Arsenal and Leandro Trossard turned the game around with a stunning strike, but Brian Brobbey pounced with an acrobatic shot in the final seconds.
Sunderland adopted an interesting tactic for this match, sneakily moving their advertising facility closer to the pitch to reduce the threat of Arsenal’s long throw-ins. And broadcaster Keyes said Arsenal will discuss their tactics after stressing that such a move could put the safety of some players at risk.
He told beIN Sports: “Sunderland didn’t commit any attacks. What they did was move players around with the idea of stopping Arsenal’s long throws.”
“As long as there’s a distance of one meter between the touchline and the fence, it’s very clear what the purpose of doing that was. But in this day and age where there have been fatalities due to the proximity of concrete walls recently, I know that’s completely different, but I just saw that yesterday and it seemed a bit close to me.
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“It could put the health of people on the football pitch at risk. I know there will be a meeting tomorrow at Arsenal to discuss it.
“No rules have been broken. Sunderland are within their rights, but I’m not sure. On the one hand, it’s very sensible and topical, but it went unnoticed by Arsenal and was still talked about yesterday after I left the ground, so we’ll wait for developments on that.”
Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris had already discussed the tactic, insisting it was done on purpose to ensure a positive result. he said: “Well, we tried to find the details to win the game.
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“They were very strong on set-pieces and we were good as well. It was clear that this threat was really important for this game and it was balanced in the end.”
Saturday’s draw put Arsenal at the top of the Premier League, but that advantage was reduced to four points after Manchester City beat Liverpool 3-0 at the Etihad Stadium. Sunderland, on the other hand, have enjoyed a strong start to the season and are currently in fourth place with 19 points from their opening 11 games.
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