19 April 2023 , 12:31
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Chris Sutton has defended his role in a controversial late equaliser Blackburn scored against Arsenal back in 1997, claiming it was not "s***housery".
On the 26-year anniversary of Blackburn's trip to Highbury during the 1996-97 Premier League season, a clip of the incident was reshared on social media prompting Sutton to respond. In the clip, Arsenal midfielder Stephen Hughes is seen going down with injured after a challenge from Tim Sherwood.
Patrick Vieira then puts the ball out of play so Hughes can receive treatment, with Ray Parlour coming on to replace him. Blackburn then immediately give the ball back to Arsenal from the throw-in, but Sutton decides to give chase and ultimately pressures Nigel Winterburn into conceding a corner.
The Arsenal fans in attendance at Highbury were furious with Sutton for not allowing Winterburn to collect the ball before challenging him and immediately rained down boos on him. Vieira was also incensed and barged into Sutton, with the forward retaliating and pushing him back as Blackburn prepared for the corner.
And as the Arsenal fans chanted 'cheat' at Sutton, Kevin Gallacher delivered the corner and Garry Flitcroft turned the ball past David Seaman to put Blackburn level in the 89th minute and earn them a 1-1 draw. In response, Sutton took to Twitter to claim the equaliser was the result of "poor play from Arsenal" and not "s***housery".
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"I'm not sure I did anything wrong here," he said. "Hughes wasn't touched really and Viera wanted to waste time. Winterburn had plenty of time to deal with it. And it wasn't my fault Keown and co didn't pick up from the corner… this was not sh@!housery it was poor play from Arsenal..."
Sutton has previously revealed he locked himself in the toilet in the away dressing room after the final whistle blew, such was the fury of Arsenal's players at full-time. "He [Vieira] ran into me, so I shoved him in the chest," Sutton told the Daily Mail in 2020.
Sutton has responded to old footage of him taking on Arsenal (Twitter@https://twitter.com/stusfootyflash)"Dixon said something, so did David Seaman. Arsenal's players lost their heads. Amid all the pushing and shoving and threats, they switched off. Kevin Gallacher took the corner, and Garry Flitcroft scored. You couldn't hear our fans celebrating for the Arsenal supporters' groans. 'Cheat, cheat, cheat,' rang around.
"I could tell all hell was about to break loose at full-time. Keown and the others were saying they were going to rip my head off! I spent the final few minutes on the left wing, near the tunnel. As soon as the final whistle went, I was straight up the tunnel.
"I wasn't the quickest, but I was rapid that day. I pegged it into our dressing room and could hear the Arsenal players going berserk outside. They wanted to get to me. They would have had a job because I'd locked myself in the toilet. I figured that was the safest place."