27 October 2001
Released on 23 October 2001, the game Grand Theft Auto III was just hitting people’s homes and starting to take over lives. I played GTA III pretty sparingly, finding the experience a bit uncomfortable. I think the first thing someone showed me was how you can beat up women and I was pretty turned off by that as a game concept. The world sucks so, why would I want to play a fantasy game where I am a horrible person? I’d much rather be a good guy. Which is probably why when Final Fantasy X came out in December of that year, I was all over it. FFX even had an underwater “soccer” type game called “Blitzball” which I, of course, mastered.
But that was December 2001. For this match we are looking back to October 27. The day before, President Bush signed the USA Patriot Act. Which is possibly the most significant piece of legislation passed in the USA since Executive Order 9066. The Patriot Act granted law enforcement broad powers to spy on American people and allowed for the indefinite detention of enemy combatants. To this day (21 November 2024) there are still 30 prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. 16 of those prisoners are recommended for transfer but there is little chance that that will happen now.
Arsenal went to Sunderland’s Stadium of Light just one point off of Leeds United. Leeds were undefeated through the first 9 matches and had the best defensive record in the League, conceding three goals in 9 matches. We all know now that the record would not hold and that Leeds would lose 8 of their final 29 matches and concede 37 goals that season. But as of kickoff in Sunderland, Arsenal were 2nd and Leeds were top of the League.
Arsenal wore their gold away kit but thanks to a quirk in the PL rules were forced to wear white socks because Sunderland’s home kit was black shorts and socks and Arsenal wearing blue shorts and socks might have caused confusion.
The referee on the day was Mike Riley, later of Arsenal’s 50th game infamy, and on this day he would anger the Sunderland supporters so much that he would need a police escort out of the stadium.
Sandwiched between two critical Champions League matches against Mallorca and Schalke 04, Arsene Wenger named a very different lineup from the previous Premier League match against Blackburn Rovers. Wenger rested Pires, Henry, and Bergkamp and started Kanu, Wiltord, and Ljungberg.
Kanu opened the scoring with what I would call a typical Kanu goal. I had forgotten how great he was with the ball at feet. He could stop a charging train with his footwork, derail that train, and chip over the tracks to score. And he pretty much did exactly that for the opener: played clean through he beat the keeper and then two others with his nimble footwork.
Stephan Schwarz scored the equalizer for Sunderland in the 54th minute. Sunderland were fighting hard but not really creating much. Parlor had put in a hard tackle and got a ticking off and then Vieira booted the ball out. A few seconds later the ball was once again bouncing around in the Arsenal box and fell to Schwarz who just kind of kicked the ball at the goal. It sure went in!
Kanu also set up what should have been the 2nd goal: again, collecting the ball (this time deep) and just using his footwork to step on the ball, move away from defenders, and create himself some space. There he laid on a perfect pass to Freddie who was tackled from behind for a pen.
Vieira stepped up to take the pen but his shot was clear over the bar. That miss seemed to turn the tide and Sunderland realized that they had a bit more in the tank. They went on a pretty decent attacking run that may have resulted in a goal. But Mike Riley called a player off side in the build up, leading to a fiery response from the Sunderland players and manager.
Arsene’s gamble with the lineups wouldn’t ultimately help the Gunners. Arsenal lost 3-1 to Schalke 04 away in Germany after Luzhnyi got a red card. Arsenal managed to advance to the 2nd group stage (Champions League has always been dumb) thanks to a +0 goal difference to Mallorca’s -5.
Overall, Arsenal look incredibly inefficient and disorganized in midfield and defense. Arsenal’s best players have been Vieira and Vieira. Sunderland manager Peter Reid called him the best midfielder in the world after this performance.
