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Chris Sutton once locked himself in the Highbury toilets to avoid Martin Keown’s wrath.
Blackburn Rovers took on Arsenal in north London towards the end of the 1996/97 campaign in a must-win game for the Gunners. With Blackburn 1-0 down, striker Sutton and his team-mates opted for the unsportsmanlike tactic of not giving Arsenal the ball back after they had kicked it out of play for an injury.
Sutton instead put pressure on left-back Nigel Winterburn, forcing a corner which the visitors were able to score from and clinch a 1-1 draw against Arsene Wenger’s side. Unsurprisingly, that didn’t go down well with some of the Arsenal players, including centre-back Martin Keown, who furiously pursued Sutton after the final whistle.
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Recalling the incident, Sutton told FourFourTwo: “Blackburn were struggling in the league that season and were losing 1-0 going into the 90th minute. Back in those days, if an opponent kicked the ball out for an injury you would give it back to them.
“But Patrick Vieira was just sitting down on the pitch and when they kicked the ball out we thought ‘They’re time-wasting here.’ I don’t know if I’m trying to make a case for myself. When we gave them the ball back we said ‘Send it over Nigel Winterburn’s head and then we’ll chase it.’
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'Jamie Carragher tried f***ing me up go-karting, just because I worked for Man Utd'
“I closed Nigel down, he put it out for a corner and then it all kicked off. In came the corner, Garry Flitcroft scored a cracking goal and all hell broke loose. All sorts of threats were being made so I played the last minute and a half on the left wing near the tunnel!
“When the final whistle went, I pegged it down the tunnel and they’re all coming after me, so I went back in the dressing room, thought: ‘Sod this’ and got in the toilet. That was the safest place for me!”
The Arsenal players’ anger was justified in the end as they finished seven points behind Premier League winners Manchester United that season in third place. They had three more games to play after Blackburn, dropping points against Coventry and Newcastle.
- Arsenal FC
- Blackburn Rovers FC
- Premier League
- Footballblog
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