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| Sam Allardyce reckons Sunderland could have beaten Arsenal had they brought their shooting boots |
SAM ALLARDYCE was left bemoaning a day when his Sunderland strikers left their shooting boots at home.
If they had, they might well have beaten Arsenal, he claimed.
Allardyce said: "Never mind a draw, we could have won today - and we probably deserved to. But we didn't because of our frailties in front of goal.
"I have never ever come here before with any team I have managed team that has created so many chances and yet ended up with nothing.
"It is a very frustrating day for us. I was encouraged by the performance, but saddened that the players didn't have their shooting boots on.
"The squad was tested today, but they performed well and Borini, Watmore and Patrick (Van Aanholt) at the end all had good chances to score. But the players are starting to believe in themselves and when you create as many chances as we did against a side like Arsenal you have to be encouraged.
"We exploited Arsenal's weakness but weren't able to capitalise and oiur only real failing today was not scoring from those chances we created."
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted afterwards that he was simply happy to end a disappointing three-game run ahead of Wednesday's crunch Champions League clash against Olympiakos.
He said: "This was a very very important game psychologically for us after three disappointing results.
"We were nervous and edgy in the first half against a team that was very impressive on the counter attack.
"We were not perfect, of course, but we showed the mental strength to win the game in the second half.
"I admit I was more nervous than usual today. I knew Sunderland would be strong on free kicks and counter attacks and it was important that we dealt with that."
Wenger also revealed that Joel Campbell celebrated scoring Arsenal's first goal with a dummy as a continuation of his celebrations at becoming a father for the first time last month.
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