Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris has revealed that the advertising hoardings at the Stadium of Light were brought in to stifle Arsenal's long throw-ins. The teams played out a thrilling 2-2 draw at the Stadium of Light on Saturday, with Sunderland taking the lead before Arsenal mounted a second-half comeback.
But in the 96th minute, Sunderland substitute Brian Brobbey scored an acrobatic equaliser to deny the Gunners' an 11th win on the bounce. Mikel Arteta's side also conceded a goal for the first time since September, having equalled a club record earlier in the week by going eight games without being breached.
Both of Arsenal's goals came from open play, as Bukayo Saka levelled the scores before Leandro Trossard looked to have given them all three points away from home. The Gunners had scored from a set piece in each of their last five Premier League outings but they were denied by Sunderland.
Arsenal's long throw-ins were hampered by the home team's decision to bring the boards closer to the pitch, giving players less room for their run-up. When asked about the change, Le Bris replied with a smile: "Yeah, we tried to find the details to win the game.
"They are really strong on set-pieces, we were good as well. It was absolutely obvious this threat was really important for this game and in the end it was balanced."
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Le Bris was delighted with the draw which keeps surprise package Sunderland in the top four going into Sunday's set of fixtures. For Arsenal, they remain top of the table, although their six-point lead will be reduced to four if Manchester City beat Liverpool.
"We knew that it was going to be really tough, really disruptive, a lot of stop and start, a lot of long balls," Arteta acknowledged. "We dealt with that the majority of the time good, but we conceded two goals in a way that we should have defended better.
"After 1-0, I think the team reacted really well. We scored a goal, scored a second goal, really dominated the game and created more chances, and then at the end, they don't need much, just a ball in the air, it's a front-up ball where we can deal with that better.
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"We conceded a goal, but we reacted immediately and we have a massive chance with Richy [Riccardo Calafiori] and Mikel [Merino] to win the game. So overall, we're disappointed with the result, but so proud of the players because putting into perspective what they've done in the last 10 games, winning all of them with the amount of clean sheets that they had, with seven players injured."
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