Sunderland manager, Lee Johnson, regrets his joke gone wrong about Arsenal as both clubs prepare to meet each other in the Carabao Cup tomorrow.
Before the draw for the quarterfinal of the competition, Johnson had joked he would love to meet the Gunners, suggesting they are not among the top clubs left in the competition.
However, in his press conference ahead of tomorrow’s fixture, he apologised for the joke and said he was simply trying to be an interesting manager.
He said via Mirror Football: “I regret if it offended anyone and it was tongue in cheek dad banter! My Twitter feed didn’t read it like that even three days after!
“On a serious note, I have a problem with the way it was reported. You try not to be vanilla to give enough hook lines for you to go off and give value.
“I don’t want to be a grey, vanilla, boring manager, especially at League One level, that people can’t feed off. Sometimes that is negative, sometimes positive.”
Just Arsenal Opinion
Although Johnson has apologised, his words should serve as a motivation to Arsenal’s stars in this fixture.
We expect Mikel Arteta to field a strong team and they need to send a message to Johnson that we are indeed inside the top four now.
Sunderland has been struggling to get promoted back into the Championship and they should be easy for us to beat.