What Arsenal’s academy once said about Dan Ballard actually played out during Sunderland draw

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Hale End product Dan Ballard punished Arsenal during the Gunners’ 2-2 draw with Sunderland at the Stadium of Light.

Ballard said Arsenal will always be in his heart after the dramatic draw, but the defender broke Mikel Arteta’s by ending the North Londoners’ clean sheet run.

Arsenal’s clean sheet record was wiped away by Sunderland, with Ballard opening the scoring and Brian Brobbey netting an injury-time equaliser. 

Though it was Brobbey’s goal that ensured Arsenal didn’t take a win back to the capital, it was the former academy talent who truly decided the direction of the points. 

• READ MORE: Steve Bould always knew one thing about ‘fabulous’ Dan Ballard at Hale End

What was said about Dan Ballard in Arsenal’s academy was proven right in Sunderland draw

Though Ballard joined Arsenal’s academy at the age of eight, the Gunners appeared as though they couldn’t work out how to contain the defender at all.

Ballard trained with Arteta in the first team at Colney before departing, where he’s since made himself a hero at Sunderland.

The Northern Irishman left in 2022, having failed to make a senior appearance for Arsenal, but that doesn’t mean that his potential wasn’t recognised.

During the match at the Stadium of Light, journalist James Benge shared something he’d been told about Ballard whilst the centre-back was at Hale End.

On X, Benge revealed that someone who’d worked with Ballard had relayed the message that he would ‘stick his head in a lion’s mouth to clear the ball’, which aged tremendously, but not for Arsenal.

In the 96th minute, it was Ballard who denied Mikel Merino a late winner by throwing himself into the ball to block the Spaniard’s strike.

The action came as second nature to the 26-year-old, who proved that he was willing to put his body on the line to prevent defeat.

Maybe it wasn’t a lion’s mouth in that situation, but it felt that dramatic, given the nature of the game in the moment, with Ballard proving the past feedback to be correct.

What Ballard said about his late block to deny Mikel Merino

Arsenal hearts were in mouths when the ball fell to Merino in the box with seconds to play.

Even the Spaniard’s remarkable run of scoring form couldn’t get the better of Sunderland, and it’s all because of Ballard.

After the game, the ex-Arsenal youngster acknowledged that he and his teammates had done all they could to prevent the visitors from taking three points home. 

“It would have been gutting if we lost the game there. That’s something we need to work on because we can’t have moments like that after just equalising.

“But the Lads threw their bodies on the line and we got the result in the end.”

It’s not only at Arsenal that Hale End products are worthy of celebration, as after Ballard’s masterclass against his former club, the academy showed its quality once again.