Wayne Rooney reacts to sneaky Sunderland dark arts after Arsenal drama
Wayne Rooney has given his reaction to Sunderland’s method of hampering Arsenal during their dramatic draw on Saturday.
Sunderland halted Arsenal’s winning run thanks to Brian Brobbey‘s stoppage time equaliser at the Stadium of Light earning the hosts a 2-2 draw.
Dan Ballard had put Regis Le Bris‘ men ahead in the first half before goals from Bukayo Saka and Leandro Trossard looked to have stolen the points, before Brobbey turned in an acrobatic leveller in the 94th minute with his first for the club.
Rooney backs Sunderland over advertising hoardings
Prior to the match the Black Cats opted to bring the advertising hoardings in closer to the edge of the pitch in order to reduce the threat of the Gunners’ long throws, and Rooney is all for it.
Asked by Kelly Sommers on The Wayne Rooney Show whether he liked the idea of Sunderland finding an extra way to disrupt their opponents the former England captain backed the move.
He said: “Yeah there’s been things in the past which I’ve seen. Bolton, you mention Gary Megson, I think narrowed the pitch because [their opponents] had good long throws.
“So I think teams have tried different things and yeah, if that gives you an advantage then why not?”
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Regis Le Bris has proven his side are the real deal
The Black Cats have kept this up long enough now that it surely has gone past the point of being anything like a fluke.
Granted, the Premier League is far more unpredictable this season than in recent years, but at a point where promoted sides being thrashed up and down the division before limping back to the Championships was starting to look like the new normal Sunderland have blown that out of the water.
Sitting fourth heading into the next international break, having broken Mikel Arteta’s sequence of victories and shocked Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, surely has at least a mid-table finish on the cards.
It hasn’t been all plain sailing of course, and there are still only nine points between the Champions League places and the relegation zone, but it would be a huge drop off from here to get dragged into a scrap, especially when confidence should be growing with each positive result.
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