Hoardings, showers & pink dressing rooms – the ‘creative’ ways clubs get an edge

Sunderland earned a point against Premier League leaders Arsenal on Saturday with a dramatic late equaliser.

But while Brian Brobbey’s acrobatic 94th-minute strike took the headlines and Gunners boss Mikel Arteta talked of the «chaos» caused by Sunderland’s direct approach, one of the hosts’ more unusual tactics also caught the eye.

The Black Cats attempted to limit Arsenal’s threat from set-pieces – specifically long throw-ins – by moving the advertising hoardings to give the Gunners less room for their run-ups.

«It might have been the wind,» Sunderland boss Regis Le Bris joked after the game.

It didn’t stop Declan Rice trying to hurl the ball into the box, but given that the visitors didn’t score from a throw-in and the game finished all square, Sunderland can certainly argue it was a worthwhile ploy.

It is not the first time the tactic has been used, with Sunderland doing the same against Coventry in last season’s Championship play-offs, while Stoke’s long-throw specialist Rory Delap accused clubs of giving them the same treatment.

BBC Sport has looked at some of the other creative ways teams have tried to gain an advantage over their opponents down the years…

There is more to winning a football match than just what goes on on the pitch – at least that is the theory Norwich went with in the 2018-19 season.

In a bid to get the edge over their Championship opponents, the Canaries painted the away dressing room «deep pink» because the colour is said to lower testosterone levels and have a calming effect on people.

«Pink has an effect, not because it is pink, but because it’s linked to childhood experiences,» said Dr Alexander Latinjak, a lecturer in sport psychology at the University of Suffolk.

«If it is true that pink lowers testosterone levels, then the coach should know exactly how to use that advantage tactically.»

It was an idea they took from the University of Iowa’s American football team, and while Norwich lost two of their first three home matches, the season ended in promotion to the Premier League. So maybe it worked?

The deep pink walls were replaced with white before the 2019-20 season and Norwich were relegated. Coincidence? Probably…

Perhaps the masters of the dark arts, dirty tricks or marginal gains, depending on how you view such things, were Cambridge United in the early 1990s.

Under manager John Beck, there was little they wouldn’t try to give themselves the edge over their opposition, including making his own players take freezing cold showers before games.

«We’d make the away dressing room either as hot or as cold as possible,» former Aston Villa striker Dion Dublin, who played under Beck at Cambridge, told The Times in 2015.

«We’d put all their warm-up balls in the bath so they were heavy and horrible to kick about.

«We’d put as much sugar as we possibly could in their tea so they couldn’t drink it. We’d lock the dressing room so they couldn’t get in for ages.»

Beck also had ground staff keep the grass in the corner of the pitch longer to aid his side’s long ball tactics.

Cambridge went from the old Division Four to the Division Two play-offs in three years under Beck, so his antics weren’t without success.

Wimbledon were known for their various antics during the Crazy Gang era of the 1980s, finding all sorts of ways to try to intimidate more vaunted opposition.

It was enough to take them all the way to the 1988 FA Cup final, where they would face a Liverpool side who had swept all aside to win the league title.

A crunching tackle from Vinnie Jones on Steve McMahon early in the final is often cited as a signal of Wimbledon’s intent, but the distraction tactics had started long before.

Striker John Fashanu said the Wimbledon players did not shower or brush their teeth for a week before the game in an attempt to put Liverpool off with their stench.

The Crazy Gang won the game 1-0 and lifted the trophy, so it wasn’t all for nothing.

Forget moving the advertising hoardings, Graeme Souness brought in the actual touchlines.

In September 1987, during his time as Rangers manager, the Scot decided he needed to take drastic action after his side were beaten 1-0 at Dynamo Kyiv in the first leg of their European Cup first-round tie.

Souness, who was never shy of a tackle during his own glittering playing career, thought a physical approach might be the way to beat the Ukrainian side at Ibrox.

What better way to make it a more physical game than by making the pitch smaller and more condensed?

«At that time, the pitch didn’t have to be a fixed width as long as it was above a certain minimum. So I made it the absolute minimum,» Souness told FourFourTwo.

Not only that, he waited until after the Kyiv players had trained on the regularly sized pitch before changing the dimensions on the day of the game.

«It wasn’t purist stuff but it was within the rules,» Souness added.

Rangers won 2-0 to progress, and the rules were subsequently changed to prevent a repeat. Clubs now have to declare the size of their pitch before the start of a new season.

Liverpool travelled to West Ham in April 2014 with dreams of ending a then 24-year wait for a league title.

But while the Reds claimed a 2-1 win courtesy of two Steven Gerrard penalties, the Liverpool skipper felt there had been a few dirty tricks from the Hammers.

«They tried everything to upset us. A hot dressing room, a dry pitch and the bus had to park a mile away,» he said.

However, then West Ham chairman David Gold responded to the claims on Twitter, writing: «Mr Gerrard nobody force your bus driver to park a mile away from the ground, it was his choice.

«If the heating is too warm, turn it down.»

Jose Mourinho has never seemed too concerned about upsetting opponents if it leads to victory.

The spring of 2011 saw the height of the rivalry between his Real Madrid side and Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona with four Clasicos in 18 days.

Before the first of those meetings, Mourinho is alleged to have instructed the ground staff at the Bernabeu to let the grass grow longer to combat Barca’s quick-paced, short passing style.

The game ended in a 1-1 draw but the incident just added to the bad blood between the sides going into the next three games.

Another nemesis of Mourinho’s, Arsene Wenger, has also had his issues with long grass.

Former Stoke manager Tony Pulis has claimed ex-Arsenal boss Wenger once wrote to the FA to complain about the length of the grass at Stoke’s stadium.