00:00Sunderland's 2-2 draw with Premier League leaders Arsenal was a good lesson.
00:06That's according to their head coach Regis Labrice,
00:09who praised his side's character in what was an eventful match at the Stadium of Light,
00:14which saw the Black Cats take the lead but then fall behind before finally drawing level.
00:19It's still tough against a team like Arsenal, one of the best teams in Europe,
00:25so you have to do a masterclass, otherwise it's impossible to win something.
00:32I think the first half was well balanced.
00:37We tried to defend high when it was possible and organized a deep block,
00:44really compact, narrow, aggressive, and we had the opportunity to manage the ball sometimes.
00:50And we even felt that it was possible to disturb them in that part.
00:55The second half was a bit tougher because you defend for long periods
01:00and then you have to stay composed with the ball.
01:03And we still have a really young squad, really young players,
01:09without great experience in the Premier League, so it's a good lesson.
01:13And Middlesbrough assistant manager Aidy Vavish praised Borough's resilience
01:18in their victory over Birmingham City at the Riverside Stadium
01:21following a turbulent week on Teesside,
01:24with Rob Edwards set to depart the club for Wolverhampton Wanderers.
01:28Yeah, I think it was, it turned, you know, we started very well, I think, in the game.
01:33I think we were very happy with the shape at the start of the match.
01:36We got the goal and I think we looked real good value for that
01:39and I thought we were going to go on, you know, we had, I think, 51 to 49% possession in the first half.
01:44But we knew coming into the game, we had a couple of doubts.
01:48Dale's a soldier, he's captain, he's a middlesbrough boy, so he put himself out there.
01:52You know, I really appreciate that.
01:54My target the same, you know, they were both struggling, but they wanted to do it.
01:59But we knew if that happened that we'd probably going to have to change shape.
02:02We talked about it, we'd planned for it and that's what we tried to execute.
02:06It took us a little bit of time to get going.
02:08In that period, they scored the equaliser, which we're very disappointed that it was given.
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