Football: Reid's plan spikes the big guns

Sunderland 0 Arsenal 0 Attendance: 41,68

ARSENAL HAVE NOT won a league match at Sunderland since the first match of Bertie Mee's managerial reign, a 2-1 success at Roker Park on the opening day of the 1966-67 season. They drew another blank on Wearside yesterday on their first visit to the Stadium of Light, rendered goal- less though not point-less by a Sunderland side bent on spiking the Gunners' attacking power.

It made for a less than thrilling spectacle for Kevin Keegan and the rest of the 41,680 spectators who broke the attendance record in Sunderland's two-year-old home. But, having seen his promoted team subjected to a ritual slaughter in the one-sided battle of Stamford Bridge on the season's opening day, Peter Reid had reason to consider it a job well done. It did not go unappreciated either, the home supporters affording Reid's players a standing ovation at the final whistle, even though the team that swept to the First Division title on an irresistible attacking wave managed just one effort on target.

Arsenal are still two better off than they were after three games last season. But the point they gained from a bruising encounter was achieved at the cost of Emmanuel Petit and Dennis Bergkamp joining the list of the wounded players Arsene Wenger is fighting to get fit for Manchester United's visit to Highbury a week today. Petit limped off with knee ligament damage five minutes before the break and Bergkamp was withdrawn at half- time, suffering from a back injury. "They won't be joining their international squads in midweek," Wenger said.

With the one-time Gunner Niall Quinn dropped to the substitutes' bench, Reid left Kevin Phillips to forage alone up front and deployed Kevin Ball in a five-man midfield. His intention, clearly, was to stifle Arsenal's creativity at source, even if the denial of midfield room to manoeuvre meant the occasional borderline challenge. Uriah Rennie, having received the loudest cheer before kick-off in appreciation of the red card he showed to Newcastle's captain last week, was obliged to admonish Sunderland's captain with just two minutes on his watch. Ball's over-zealous tackle on Petit warranted the yellow card Rennie duly flourished but the home side's rugged approach succeeded in subduing the visitors.

More often than not, Arsenal were either battling to find a way through a crowded midfield or fighting in vain for space on the edge of the home penalty area, though after the break Thomas Sorensen was called into action to save breakaway shots from substitutes Luis Boa Morte and Fredrik Ljungberg plus a diving header by Kanu. Steve Bould, until the summer a stand-in cornerstone in a rock-solid Arsenal defence, was also required to make a goalmouth clearance before making way for Thomas Helmer.

The German was last seen in public directing a two-fingered gesture towards Ottmar Hitzfeld after being kept on the bench by the Bayern Munich coach at the European Cup final in the Nou Camp in May. Sunderland might have delivered something similar in the direction of the Premiership's elite if Quinn, a 78th-minute substitute for Phillips, had beaten Alex Manninger with a late downward header. But Reid's dogged underdogs still made their point.