With a bit of luck, it might be a nice dilemma for the club to have in a couple of years – and it’s one that has impacted a few clubs recently in the Premier League – but it’s that question of what’s next? We’d finished seventh in the top flight for two successive seasons, but what happens after that when expectations lift?.
There was also the element of the fact that it could have been even better, but our form in the second half of the season on both occasions saw us drop down from challenging with
the leaders when the New Year arrived. There were big questions that Peter Reid was trying to answer, the big one was replacing talisman Niall Quinn.
The Republic of Ireland international was defying convention by carrying on as he had enjoyed celebrating his 35th birthday weeks earlier, and he needed to be replaced. Lilian Laslandes had arrived from Bordeaux for around £3.6m in the summer, but by the time Arsenal came to town in our eleventh game of the season it was becoming clear this was not going to be the answer.
The other challenge was replacing Don Hutchison, who had been so important the previous season in providing goals and assist from his position on the right of midfield, but this left a gaping hole when the former Liverpool and Everton man left to sign for West Ham. Reid’s solution was the signing of Jason McAteer from Blackburn Rovers, and the former Liverpool player would make his home debut in this game against Arsenal.
Defeats against Manchester United and Middlesbrough at the Stadium of Light and the Riverside respectively, meant Reid’s side were on a run of one win in six, and as we sat in mid-table, it was important to stop the rot and pick up points as Arsene Wenger’s side travelled north.
With the game sandwiched between two crucial Champions League games, Wenger decided to shuffle his pack, which saw Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires all drop to the bench. Reid however, went to a back three/five, and with four across the middle meant Phillips would be in for a tough afternoon up top on his own against Martin Keown and Sol Campbell.
With almost twenty minutes on the clock, Sunderland almost took the lead, with McAteer getting to the byline and swinging in a cross that Richard Wright had to tip off the head of Kevin Phillips who looked likely to score. But five minutes before half-time, Stanislav Varga was caught trying to play offside when Sylvain Wiltord played in Nwanko Kanu on goal who eventually beat Varga and Thomas Sorensen before lashing it into the roof of the net.
After the break the visitors should have doubled their lead just minutes after the restart, and they were made to pay around ten minutes later when former Arsenal player Stefan Schwarz equalised superbly when he perfectly judged his lob from twenty yards out that sailed over Wright and into the net.
Emerson Thome was close to giving the Lads the lead just before the hour and with just under twenty minutes remaining it looked like Arsenal would regain the lead when referee Mike Riley pointed to the spot when Bernt Haas brought down Freddie Ljungberg in the box. Patrick Viera stepped up and fired high over the bar to let the home side, and Haas, off the hook.
Riley would again be under the spotlight at the end of the game as he required a police escort off the pitch after denying a penalty to Sunderland when Quinn was fouled in the box, and then made matters worse when the ball was nodded in seconds later by Julio Arca, be he was adjudged to have been offside.
FA Barclaycard Premiership
Stadium of Light
Sunderland 1-1 Arsenal
[Schwarz 54’ – Kanu 40’]
Sunderland: Sorensen, Haas (Williams), Craddock, Thome, Varga, Gray, McAteer, Schwarz, McCann (Quinn), Arca, Phillips Substitute not used: Macho, McCartney, Bellion
Manchester United: Wright, Lauren, Upson, Viera, Campbell, Keown, Parlour, Ljungberg, Van Bronckhorst, Wiltord (Henry), Kanu (Bergkamp) Substitute not used: Taylor, Luzhny, Pires
Attendance: 48,029
