Mikel Arteta has suggested that the rules of football will need to change if the Premier League is to become more entertaining and less focused on set pieces.
Arteta was responding to criticism of the record number of goals from corners — more than 17 per cent of all goals so far this season — and his Arsenal team’s excellence at set pieces.
The Arsenal manager agreed with his Liverpool counterpart Arne Slot, who said other European leagues offered greater entertainment value than the Premier League. Arteta said set pieces had become more important in England because teams were so effective at stopping opponents in open play, partly through the rise of man-to-man, rather than zonal, defending.
Arteta did not specify which rules may need to change to make the Premier League a more appealing spectacle, but other managers, including Everton’s David Moyes, have said referees need to take a harder line on the grabbing and wrestling that has become common between players in the penalty area while waiting for deliveries from corners and free kicks.
“I would like to play with three extra players in my half to get some beautiful football and always play against a free man,” Arteta said. “You want to watch that football, you have to go to a different country because in the Premier League, for the last two or three seasons, this is not the case.
“It’s going to be a different game unless we change the rules because the evolution of the game is that. Four years ago it was a completely different game.”
Jurriën Timber scores in the win against Chelsea on Sunday, when both of Arsenal’s goals came from corners
ANDREW BOYERS/REUTERS
Arteta said that man-to-man defending — where indiviudal players follow a specific attacker — had made it harder to create attacking opportunities by outnumbering defenders in small areas of the pitch. He said it was no longer as simple as pushing a full back into midfield or using a false nine (a withdrawn striker) to try to gain a tactical advantage.
Arteta claimed his rivals work just as hard on scoring from set pieces, which have increasingly been a key weapon for Arsenal in the past three seasons. Arteta’s team have scored 24 goals from corners, including both in a 2-1 win against Chelsea on Sunday, and 32 from set pieces in all competitions this season. Chelsea equalised through a corner at the Emirates Stadium — Piero Hincapié headed Reece James’s delivery into his own goal — and have scored 19 goals from set pieces this season.
The Arsenal manager said his side can do better at dead-ball situations. “I’m upset that we’re going to score more [from them] and that we concede as well,” he said. “I was really upset by the way we conceded against Chelsea. The amount of set pieces they scored, Manchester United is doing so well. The same, I was at Man City, [we] used to work a lot on them.”
Arteta repeated his view that goals were goals however they were scored. Last season he illustrated that by lifting two bottles to represent goals being scored from open play and set pieces. He then raised one bottle to show how he views goals as one entity. “I don’t know how you celebrate one goal different from another one,” he said. “Maybe for YouTube it’s nicer one over another.”
Arsenal have been accused of delaying the game by taking their time over set plays, almost certainly to create drama and add doubt to the minds of their opponents, especially the goalkeeper. More home fans are also now recording the moment on their phones, in anticipation of a goal.
Hürzeler has called for stricter rules around set pieces
JOHN SIBLEY/REUTERS
The time-wasting has been criticised by Brighton & Hove Albion, Arsenal’s opponents at the Amex on Wednesday night, who have also called for stricter rules around grappling and blocking in the area. Declan Rice was pictured clasping Jorrel Hato against Chelsea, but no penalty was awarded.
“There are no clear rules any more [around] how much time you can spend taking a corner or a throw-in,” Fabian Hürzeler, the Brighton head coach, said. “Some of the ways teams are blocking, there’s no real rule. Sometimes the referee whistles and it’s a foul, sometimes it isn’t a foul or they don’t whistle.
“[We need] a clear rule on how much time you can take for a corner, a free kick, because no one recognises it. When Arsenal have a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take a corner.”
Arteta declined to respond to that claim. Arsenal take 44.35 seconds before delivering a corner on average, which is almost 50 per cent longer than Chelsea, who take them the quickest at 30.8 seconds. Arsenal’s average delay at taking free kicks, goal kicks and throw-ins has been in line with the average for other clubs.
Hürzeler said it meant fans are being cheated over the amount of time the ball is in play. Matches involving his Brighton side have the ball in play 56.2 per cent of the time, the fifth-highest in the league, above Arsenal, on 55.7 per cent, in seventh.
Brighton v Arsenal
Premier League
Wednesday, 7.30pm
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