Sutton United chairman Bruce Elliott has described Arsene Wenger’s decision to play Alexis Sanchez in the final 16 minutes of last night’s FA Cup tie as ‘a touch of class’.
Gander Green Lane’s packed terraces were treated to a cameo from the Chile international despite concerns over the 3G pitch and with the Gunners already two goals to the good.
Afterwards, the boss played down suggestions that it was an unnecessary risk and later, behind closed doors, appears to have hinted his star man was sent on to honour the minnows amazing cup run.
Reflecting on a memorable night for his club, Elliott spoke with admiration of Arsenal’s behaviour and shed light on his chinwag with Wenger.
“What I can’t forget is the wonderful behaviour of everyone at Arsenal and a great chat I had with manager Arsene Wenger in the away dressing room after the match,” he wrote in the Evening Standard.
“We spent two minutes talking about the game, football and I must admit I found him to be a perfect gentleman.
“He knew what it was like to be in small changing rooms from his time working in France many years ago.
“But it was during our chat that I was given the impression that he brought on Alexis Sanchez late on in the tie because he knew what it would mean to us and all the fans that were watching.
“I know the decision to bring him on surprised a few, but I thought it was a real touch of class.
“I was sitting up in the stands at the time and our manager Paul Doswell came out of the dug-out, looked at me and pointed at Sanchez coming on. The look on his face said it all.”
After a very special night, it has also been confirmed that Arsenal will be donating £50,000 to Sutton to help build two classrooms, that the club presented a silver cannon rather than pennant prior to kick-off, that the players left all their shirts in the away dressing room and that captain Theo Walcott and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain signed autographs for their opponents.
The Arsenal players all left their shirts behind. The Sutton players are going to hand them out in dressing room at next match pic.twitter.com/RZd7vWEk8i
— AmyLewisSport (@AmyLewisSport) February 21, 2017
Who says the magic of the FA Cup is dying?
AFC – when you have the history, you have the class.
ARSENE WENGER! class!
What a legend
Nice one about leaving the shirts behind too.
A welcome distraction..
You mean football in general right? Because ofc only pond life would find something negative about this story.
Sam please just stop ffs
I will never understand why comments like this get crushed by downvotes. Seems so opposite of the general mood on the Arses, which seems slightly pro Wenger out.
Are there a small group of Wenger loyalists who just downvote anything that isn’t sunshine and rainbows? Is Chips Keswick on here policing comments?
Maybe it would be nice with a change …maybe maybe not. Either way i think most readers of the arse blog recognice the positive contribution to the club as a whole. What would AFC be without AW ? Sunderland everton cheloligarsky sheik city aston villa worchesteshire wancks ? There is so many horrible clubs run by horrible people. AW has turned Arsenal into a world class club, we are there now there will be incredible hard to fuck that up. because of AW we can put or name with Bayern real barca and juve in stead of villa coventry totts… Read more »
I just love Arsenal FC!
Classy manager, Classy club. One AFC.
Check. Check. Check.
Pathetic spoilt brats for fans. Check.
Just read on BBC Sport that their sub goalkeeper is being investigated by the FA for pie eating. Have these twats got nothing better to do with their time!
Latest news is that Wayne Shaw has now resigned from the club.
he was sacked
Broadcast the odds of an overweight player eating a pie, what do you expect? Cunts fuck off and die. Sorry blogs just vexing
I agree. He should sue for bullying because of his weight.
Trust the BBC to broadcast this instead of showing the football well done lineker and all his cronies,now the man has lost his job ?
Total class. Total respect. A real TOTAL manager.
Don’t get me started.
in Wenger we trust.
Form is temporary, class is permanent.
I love my club, sheer class….
Classy, classy Arsenal, Arsene and our players too. So proud I am a fan.
Only Arsenal would think of something like this.
Pure class ?
Nice gesture 🙂
I love him so much. Wish he could iron out his flaws.
It’s just so nice after all the shit literally hitting the fan the last few weeks to hear something good about the club. Arsene’s a class act. I reckoned that it was a real poor show not handing over a pennant and then you hear a silver cannon and 50k. Bein a gooner is something special ain’t it?
Literally?
But yeah, definitely class 🙂
…you perhaps mean metaphorically or figuratively as no real human excrement actually hit the fan
Well, to be fair, it may have been a *very* rough couple of weeks at The Loon Ranger’s house …
I’m still scrubbing the walls. I was so angry i threw the cat litter tray
Helps if the cat had finished its business first!
Nope it was still in the middle of a mourinho
Arsène forever?
Were you saying that last Wednesday night? I think not, you fickle mug.
Great job boss!
This is why I, as an American with no geographical or family ties to any PL club, chose to support Arsenal. Even before I knew a thing about Arsene or the club I could tell they were class. Thank goodness I didn’t choose the Chavs or one of the Manchester clubs. I ask myself why, why(!?) did I pick the Gunners after utterly maddening and heart stomping performances all the time, but I know for a fact I got it right because of things like this.
I’m in the same boat, Chert. Makes me proud to be a transAtlantic Gooner.
We are The Arsenal and we are the best. We are The Arsenal so fuck all the rest…
….. because they are dishonest to their federations :-p
Particularly Anthony Taylor
Pure class, proud to be a Gooner! Well done to Sutton as well! The respect between opponents was refreshing!
You mean Joey Barton wasn’t this classy to Lincoln?
Thumbs up to everyone
Lovely gestures all round. Reminds me why I am so proud.
This is what I love about Arsenal. Trophies are great, but no matter how big we get we’ll always be a community club.
As always, form is temporary, class is permanent #Proud
This is what football should be about.
Wagner aaahht!!!
A small lesson in class. If only the minority ‘fans’ could show the same class when we play at the Emirates. I would hate to be a manager/player these days, unless you win every game, the fans think you are a twat. Look at how they treat Wenger and Ozil. I’ve been a fan for 50 years and very disturbed with how we are treating Wenger and Ozil. Arsenal are performing the same as City, Liverpool and United this year, only Chelsea pulling away and look at the resources they have had. How can you say Wenger under performs given… Read more »
You said it right. It’s disgusting to see some “idiots” making so much noise almost after every game
You’re right, David. Wenger does understand the emotional investment that the supporters have, though, so he is classy even about the negative comments. He and the players, including Ozil, work very hard but are paid millions to do what they love. They know that irrational criticism is part of the deal.
Spot on David….my sentiments exactly. Wenger has done great things at Arsenal….people have short memories. Yes it is frustrating that we’re not having a good season and we haven’t won the league for 13yrs, but so called fans need to remember that we have always qualified for the Champions League every year since AW has been our manager. Give credit where it’s due u morons.
???Arsene !!!!!
I mean Wenger has his issues but he has been a class act (as the board). Can’t take it away from him on that count. He’s built the club from humble financial beginnings, developed the stadium to generate enough income to sustain us in challenging against some debt financed (sugar daddy) clubs. In tenure, he has flattered to deceive over last decade and should have won more even given constraints but he has never dipped below a MINIMUM standard of CL spot and St Totteringham’s day. Not to be confused with our ambitions which are of course higher. The media… Read more »
Thank you. A great post.
This +. What else does Shearer do except gab off?
He’s also good at nipping off to the BBC bog for a wank whenever anyone mentions Mourinho.
Remember 1989 Arsenal V Liverpool on 29 May Arsenal players handed flowers to 4 corners of Anfield in memory / sympathy of Liverpool fans who lost their lives at Hillsboro . . . always a classy club
All the more pity some segments of our fan base seemed incapable of exhibiting any form of class to the man who has built this club up from humble financial means into where we are now. Sure you may feel Wenger isn’t the right man for the job anymore, its your perogative as a fan, but does one have to show such bile and spite to a man who has frankly dedicated 21 years of his life to building the club. Frankly its infantile and despicable. Wenger showed class giving Sutton the honour they deserve by playing Alexis. Instead ,… Read more »
What humble financial means? We were the 3rd richest club in the country when Arsene took over.
We had won 5 trophies in the decade before Wenger arrived including a European one, so it wasn’t like he took us out of the gutter.
Let’s not belittle Wenger’s achievements but let’s not hugely exaggerate them either.
Then stop belittling Wenger’s achievements every post you make. I’m sure many people would appreciate the effort.
What annoys me the most is that the MEDIA now pander to the anti-Wenger narrative. So we had one paper calling the lack of pennant a “snub”. No mention of much more valuable cannon (which Walcott was hardly going to carry on the pitch for kickoff) and the 50k donation. And we had another tabloid saying Wenger looked angry at the pitch, the stadium, the facilities etc when he didn’t seem to be angry in the slightest about what was happening…anxious about the result, possible injury to his players and perplexed by how the reffed judged their tackles differently to… Read more »
Crisis mongering…ex-Liverpool and ex-Spurs pundits or Robbie Savage/Barton mediocre career types all have us as their target. Look at Liverpool, 25 seasons without the trophy despite myriad managerial changes including one Brendan Rodgers. That’s a quarter of a century and more. Or Spurs, again plenty of management changes as precribed by same knowledgable media. They get into CL (that 4th spot trophy they are always ribbing us on) and they celebrate like they have won the big prize. Have they even been able to repeat the trick back to back let alone for 2 decades? Again, plenty of genius managers… Read more »
Last I heard, Martinez is manager of the Belgium national team.
…Plus I think its in his contract that he plays every game Alexis.
Imagine the sulk if he didn’t get the minutes. The bloke is simply indestructable. He’s a machine. Can we have two of him please?
Classy as ever, well done Arsene, well done Arsenal!
Thumbs up The ARSE.
I tried but could only read that one way. Sorry.
Pity the Daily Mail focused on the untidy dressing room we left after the game instead of these comments, the silver cannon, the £50000 donation, Alexis coming on, Theo visiting straight after game and signing shirts,
Mail probably complained that Arsenal left their shirts in the home dressing room expecting them to be laundered and returned!
What are you doing reading that rag? I wouldn’t use it to wipe my ass.
Links from this very website!
the fact is that the photos shown of the dressing room was before all our staff had left the dressing room. if you look at the photos one has a massive puma bag still there and a smaller puma bag. both Arsenal club items, so we have no idea if when whoever came back in to collect those bags did not tidy up a bit too. Anyway, its not like one of the players took a shit in the middle of the floor, it was a few bottles, cans and wrappings and the like, nothing that is not in most… Read more »
Very proud to a Gooner right now!
Well done Arsenal. Lovely gestures there. Love how we do all this behind closed doors and not for publicity or things like that, it’s just class. Though I somehow doubt Arsene sent Alexis on as a mark of respect, I’d say Alexis was constantly in his ear about a run out, that’s how much he just wants to play, like a kid!
If Sanchez had been injured in that tackle, AW might be facing a lot of criticism. He could have left Sanchez at home though but having taken him there was no way he wasn’t going to come on.
Remember what Sanchez does for his real grass roots football back in Chile – they’d probably regard Gander Green as a palace!
You won’t find this on ESPN cos it doesn’t fit their toxic narrative.
Arsenal Fans for the Pie Man.
So happy I support this club.
So I hope all those muggy twonks on Twitter last night are now reeling in their attitudes and vile abuse following #pennantgate which was a minor faux-pas considering the club had already attempted to donate their gate receipts to Sutton to no avail due to typical FA beaurocracy. The club and Theo in particular were abused on Twitter no end because of the Pennant slip-up (assuming it was a slip up and not simply a case of failing to let Theo know that there was a Silver Cannon to present to them instead of a pennant) – I’m sick of… Read more »
We may have lost the old insignia on our club crest when we redesigned our club logo but as a club, players, manager and fans we should always remember our club motto. “Victoria Concordia Crescit” “Victory Through Harmony”. Stick together, tweak the midfield a little and support Wenger and Mesut “Pensa Positivo” “Think Positive” and keep up our great traditions like our gestures to Sutton. O2BA Gooner!!!!
Class team…..cannot think of anyone else in the Premiership that would that
I love the way it all played out and think the club is great etc. Etc.
But, is it bribery? Is putting on Sanchez, a player we are all very worried about leaving, into a 5,000 capacity stadium a sign that “well you play against Chelsea, you have to play against these guys?”
We struggled so much with this team, and fair play to Sutton for being a top team in the 5th DICISUON
AFC is honest to its federation!
How refreshing to see so many comments that arent glued to a sharp knife and aimed at Wengers back.
I am LFC but Arsenal you are a true gentleman and of the highest order. Well played.
Why is it that anyone who critisises/wants Wenger out on this blog is called names as stupid, counts etc? Everyone is entitled to their opinion so I want you to respect that fact. They buy tickets with their hard earned money and so have earned the right to complain when things go wrong. Don’t you know that insulting your fellow fans who love the club as much as you do and wouldn’t hesitate to spend their last penny to watch Arsenal matches is also wrong and hypocritical? I would also like to remind you that during these years Wenger was… Read more »
Time for Wenger haters to realise its not just about winning cups, it’s about traditions, respect and morals. Wenger has rejected offers time and time again, he could have followed all the great managers and left for clubs which have bottomless pockets and become a success by definition of how many trophies he has won but instead he has sacrificed this for the love of the game and created an Arsenal which will stand amongst the great with honour dignity and pride. RESPECT IS EARNED NOT BOUGHT! Thank you Arsene Wenger for our arsenal!
He knows he would be sacked after 2-3 seasons for not winning a major trophy(La Liga,League 1,Champions League) example at Real Madrid and PSG. Arsenal are the only ones who can accept his failures that’s why he is sticking with Arsenal as long as he wants cus there’s no pressure to deliver.Dont be deceived Wenger is not a fool.