Allardyce: Foreign players make a fuss…

Sarah Winterburn

Sunderland manager Sam Allardyce launched into a highly predictable rant about foreign footballers when asked about accusations of an elbow against Jermain Defoe on Nicolas Otamendi.

The former England striker incensed both Otamendi and his Manchester City defensive partner Martin Demichelis with his flailing arms, but Allardyce said making a fuss is “in their nature”.

“Jermain Defoe doesn’t elbow anybody on purpose,” insisted Allardyce.

“They make a big fuss about it and that’s what they do. That’s mostly foreign players, they do make a big fuss of it. That’s in their nature – I’m not saying it’s in the way they are brought up. They react in a more volatile way to incidents like that than we do.

“We accept that but I don’t think Jermain intentionally did it.”

Sunderland lost the game 1-0 with Allardyce admitting: “While this performance was the best since I’ve been here, we’re in big trouble now when you look at the other results tonight.”