Salut! Sunderland presents a challenge to Arsenal supporters – the poster of the best comment received by 10am tomorrow WED NOV 24 will be offered a Nick Hornby book (regular, that is, not special edition) of his of her choice …
We’ve had our say. Sunderland fans, even those who have a lot of admiration for the players Arsène Wenger chooses and the way they play for him, think he went way beyond the limits of reason and fairness in his post-match comments. Notably this:
“Sunderland were aggressive but you expect that. I think that they tried to stop us from playing, sometimes on the fringes of the rule, but that’s part of the game.”
Doesn’t anyone who found this a dirty game inhabit a different planet? Wasn’t the worst challenge of the game committed by an Arsenal player: Traore on Campbell in stoppage time (some say otherwise but we think Alan Wiley was right to punish it with a yellow and not a red)?
The questions are these: is it impossible to beat Arsenal and not be insulted by the losing manager, “nicely dressed up in a French accent” as Louise Taylor described it so well it in The Guardian? Is he right to imply we are just a bunch of black pudding-eating cloggers? Are we so far off Arsène’s social radar that slagging us off is just his default mode? When, and with how much, will he be bidding for Lorik Cana?
Gunners fans – we know you’re out there – produced three cracking Who Are They? previews to last Saturday’s game.
Come back with 50-100 words in support of Arsène and you might even win a Salut! Sunderland prize. I’ve mentioned the prize above, and this will be offered to the best comment received by 10am tomorrow. My decision final.
All entries will be reproduced – subject to the laws of libel and judgements on decency. Post as comments here or e-mail them to colinrandall@hotmail.com
Colin Randall
dannygunner says:but in all fairness you took your chance
I take it you are a Wenger Vision subscriber?
Is it the case that when an unmarked player in the penalty area has two clear shots on goal against Arsenal and they are not chances? Mind Steed fluffed them both.
Also you said “……don’t think you guys were any great shakes to be honest and felt a draw would’ve been a fair result” well nice to see you putting your own team down. And BTW for a draw to be a fair result you would have had to of put some real pressure on our goal crossing the ball across the goal with no one even making contact with it is not what I’d call a chance, just a bad pass.
As for the ‘so called’ penalty shout, yes if the guy had had the ball in his possession I’m sure one would have been awarded, however he didn’t so justice prevailed:D
I think a lot of what Wenger says is more out of trying (sometimes wrongly) to protect the team the their fragile confidence. He did say that Sunderland played well, and I am sure some of the comments may have been taken out of context. Its our first loss for a while, but I have no complaints. Sunderland deserved the win on the day. Arsenal played below their usual standard and thats whats happens when you do. We got nothing and deserved what we got.
ah pete, how can you say it was a legitimate tackle? he didn’t touch the ball and took away vela’s standing leg- the only possible argument for it not being a pen was that vela possibly didn’t have complete control of the ball, however campbells ‘tackle’ ensured he didn’t have the opportunity to try and regain it. sorry to use a cliche but if it was outside the box it would’ve been a free kick. i do agree that traore was fortunate not to get a red as it was very late- if his studs had connected it would’ve certainly been red.
Oh dear John. Once again you fall into that huge elephant trap that says “Let’s assume Sunderland have no internationals”. Da Silva had played for Paraguay, Cana for Albania, Fulop for Hungary. Bent, McCartney and Healey had been away with their countries and some of the fringe players had been in age group squads.
Of course, I accept that the fixture list should be geared towards the Big 4, but if you persist in signing players who are from nations that need to go through play offs to get to the World Cup thisi is what happens.
Wiley booked Traore because of his theatrics after an unpleasant challenge by Campbell. He (Traore) took advantage of the ref and the ref got him back. Brilliant refereeing. And he was right about the penalty; it was a legitimate tackle.
Why do the top 4 always feel sorry for themselves? Answer on one side of the paper only.
I thought Sunderland deserved the win on the day. They have beaten Liverpool and should have beaten United too. Steve Bruce has done a great job.
You can be selective with the quotes and make something look as bad or sore losing as you want to. On the official Arsenal website, AW said Sunderland played well.
as an arsenal fan, i was actually quite suprised to see these quotes from arsene- in the post game interviews i saw he was uncharacteristicly slating his own players in public and i thought he was quite congratulatory towards sunderland. i don’t think you guys were any great shakes to be honest and felt a draw would’ve been a fair result (esp since we should’ve had a penalty) but in all fairness you took your chance and we didn’t. i have to say i thought you played better against utd but i’ve no complaints about the result- i’m also irish and love niall quinn so sunderland for the champs league!!!!
The Traore incident… wasn’t that after he got hacked from behind by a Sunderland player ? Anybody see that… not the Sunderland fan who was bleating on about Traore dishing some out on 5 live.
As for Sunderland. Congratulations, you fully deserved your victory. Next time let’s hope we have 14 days to prepare for a g ame and you have 1 day, with all of your players returning from injuries and international duty.
Pantomime booing, Liam, no more.
Football fans like pantomimes. Years ago, a Sunderland fan who played a Mr Nasty in Coronation St was booed when he came on the pitch to hand the prizes out to raffle winners. A few of our fans booed the blameless Gallas. Your fans chanted Thierry Henry’s name quite a lot. Presumably to goad our Irish chairman. Calmes-toi!
I think really the whole thing comes down to dignity in defeat. And we are not anymore. No one likes to be beat. We need to learn to take it on the chin like we used to. I have great respect for Sunderland, can’t say I support them, but I do watch for there score. As for big quinny can’t say enough good things about him. I remember his dubut for us, it was against Liverpool and he scored, we thought we had the new Pele. As for the banter on the terraces if thats what it was thats different. I love the craic between fans, and have to say Arsenal have there fair share of good comidians.
As an Arsenal fan, I saw no problem with the way Sunderland played at all. You had a well executed game plan and Arsenal came expecting just to be able to show up and collect a win. Credit to the Black Cats for a deserved win.
No we have no excuse for getting on like this. It is fairly obvious that you stifled us with your sintalating style and panache. Instead of us being complacent, and tired looking. Well done you beat us,
I still see that you have your very large contingent of Irish fans who booed Gallas everytime he got the ball. Whats that all about?
By the way, I am a big Ireland fan myself, but find these clowns pathetic. x
In fairness Sunderland played well and Arsenal were shocking in the finishing.Arsene imo was more in shocked! how his squad didn`t respond ,that goal Bent scored was spot on! 3pts. to them well deserve