OTD: SAFC 1-0 ARSENAL

On this day in 1997, Sunderland defeated Arsenal 1-0 at Roker Park in the Premier League; just one of three games against Arsene Wenger’s men in the space of 11 days.

Sunderland were a newly promoted side going into the 1996/97 season and we were faring well in our first ever campaign in the Premier League. Going into this one, we sat 11th place and we’d seen big wins over the likes of Nottingham Forest (4-1) and Chelsea (3-0).

In the reverse fixture against Arsenal, we slumped to a 2-0 defeat at Highbury, with two goals in the last twenty minutes sinking us. We’d done well though, considering we’d been down to nine men since the 39th minute after Martin Scott and Paul Stewart had both been dismissed for second yellow cards.

One week before we hosted them at Roker Park, we travelled once again to Highbury for an FA Cup third round tie. The hosts took the lead in the 10th minute via John Hartson but 10 minutes later, Michael Gray equalised and this took the affair to a replay. The replay was scheduled for four days after the league clash. Darren Williams also made his debut for the club in that draw.

On the day of the match, we lined up with this:

Lionel Perez

Gareth Hall

Dariusz Kubicki

Darren Williams

Richard Ord

Andy Melville

Michael Gray

Paul Bracewell

John Mullin

Michael Bridges

David Kelly

Future Sunderland player Steve Bould started for the visitors.

29 minutes into the affair, Dennis Bergkamp fouled Paul Bracewell and was shown a straight red card but the deadlock wasn’t broken until after the hour mark. Arsenal defender Tony Adams inadvertently diverted a Sunderland cross beyond goalkeeper David Seaman and it was 1-0 to the Lads with 24 minutes left on the clock. John Mullin broke away late on and very nearly doubled our advantage but was denied by Seaman and that was that.

The three points kept us 11th but that was the highest we’d be for the remainder of the season as we began to gradually slip down the league standings. In the end, we were very unluckily relegated on the final day despite accruing that supposedly safety-guaranteeing 40 points.

In the FA Cup replay at Roker Park, Bergkamp got his revenge as he opened the scoring for his side less than a minute into the second half before Stephen Hughes buried the game in the 65th minute, ending our FA Cup campaign.