“There are no clear rules anymore. How much time you can spend for a corner? How much time you can spend for a throw-in?”
Arsenal’s approach to set pieces dismayed Fabian Hurzeler before Wednesday night’s game, and the 97 minutes that followed did nothing to alter that view.
“The Premier League needs to find a rule because that’s not football what Arsenal did there,” Hurzeler, opponents Brighton & Hove Albion’s head coach, said in the wake of their 1-0 defeat.
In Hurzeler’s eyes, it’s blatant time-wasting — the German highlighted how Arsenal sometimes take more than a minute to execute a corner when they are leading — and he also claimed that all the delays around set pieces “disturbs the rhythm of the game” for the other team.
Opta duly revealed that Arsenal took a combined 30 minutes and 51 seconds to restart play across that match against Brighton — their highest total in a Premier League fixture this season. It sounds a lot — and it is — but the table below shows that 13 Premier League clubs have spent longer restarting matches this season, and some of them on multiple occasions.
That said, did Hurzeler have a point when it comes to Arsenal? Are they, to borrow his expression, making up their own rules around set pieces?
To try to answer those questions, we reached for the stopwatch and analysed every goal kick, throw-in, free kick and corner during the league leaders’ midweek victory at the Amex Stadium.
Brighton’s supporters had done their pre-match reading. With little more than five minutes on the clock, the frustration in the stands about Arsenal’s time-keeping was loud and clear.
It was an Arsenal throw-in deep inside the Brighton half and Piero Hincapie, shuffling along the touchline one way and then the other, had the ball in his hands for 14 seconds before releasing it:
A total of 26 seconds passed from the moment the ball first went out of play, prompting whistling from the Brighton crowd.
The table below puts that figure into context and also shows the Premier League’s worst offenders on throw-ins (typically, clubs with a long-throw specialist).
Twelve of Arsenal’s restarts against Brighton were goal kicks — their highest total this season. It’s hard to blame them for that: at the risk of stating the obvious, those goal kicks came about because Brighton players put the ball off the pitch.
In the example below, which was shortly after Bukayo Saka’s deflected effort had opened the scoring, there were 24 seconds between the ball going out of play and the goal kick being taken. Cue more annoyance among the home fans. After receiving the ball from Gabriel in the image below, goalkeeper David Raya went long — and with success.
An Arsenal throw-in on their right-hand side, in the 14th minute, prompts chants of ‘Same old Arsenal, always cheating’ as the clock ticks away.
There are 19 seconds between the ball going out of play and Jurrien Timber taking the throw. Some of that time is taken up by Timber retrieving the ball (it’s worth remembering that ball boys or ball girls are no longer allowed to return the ball to players in the Premier League; instead, they’re instructed to re-spot them on a cone for players to collect).
That said, the Arsenal right-back is clearly in no hurry. But, quite frankly, why would he be when his team are winning away from home?
It seems logical to think that the scoreline will influence the speed of restarts in a lot of cases.
On that note, only Manchester City have spent a larger share of Premier League matches (51 per cent) in a winning game-state this season than Arsenal (45 per cent).
Despite being behind, Brighton are playing positively. A promising move ends with Georginio Rutter’s shot ricocheting off his team-mate Ferdi Kadioglu for an Arsenal goal kick.
Hurzeler knows what is coming and decides enough is enough. He walks across to David Webb, the fourth official, to complain about the delay. Webb looks at his watch and scribbles in his notepad.
There is a lot of booing in the stadium. Forty-four seconds elapse between the ball going out of play off Kadioglu and Cristhian Mosquera taking the goal kick.
A wild shot from Carlos Baleba sails over and leads to another Arsenal goal kick. Hurzeler makes his way to the edge of his technical area, looking like a man who could turn into Michael Douglas’ character in the movie Falling Down at any moment.
This goal kick is taken more quickly — 26 seconds after the ball went out of play.
Arsenal have a free kick inside the Brighton half now. Declan Rice and Gabriel are deep in conversation, plotting what could have been their team’s 22nd set-piece goal of the season — a familiar scene and something that antagonises the Brighton supporters.
In reality, though, it’s not that long a hold-up — 37 seconds between the foul and the free kick being taken.
Yet another Arsenal free kick is awarded (they were fouled 14 times against Brighton — the third-highest total for Mikel Arteta’s team this season).
The game is niggly — and not only on the pitch. Arteta and Hurzeler exchange words, with the Spaniard angrily pointing at his counterpart. At the same time, the Brighton captain, Pascal Gross, complains to referee Chris Kavanagh. When Rice eventually takes the free kick, 62 seconds have elapsed since Timber was fouled.
If the time that Arsenal are taking before each set piece is frustrating Brighton, it’s hard to escape the feeling that Hurzeler’s side aren’t helping themselves.
Another Brighton foul, by Diego Gomez on Gabriel Martinelli, gives Arsenal a free kick in a promising position. This time, it’s 61 seconds between the challenge and the set piece being taken.
Just past the half-hour mark, Martin Zubimendi commits a foul from behind and appears to hurt himself in the process. Arsenal’s physio comes on — a delay that results in both managers calling their players over for a chat. Zubimendi is forced to leave the pitch for 30 seconds (that time will double under the new laws ratified by IFAB last weekend), and more than two minutes have passed by the time the game resumes.
A couple of Arsenal goal kicks follow before Raya annoys the Brighton fans by taking a tumble when Kaoru Mitoma puts an arm across him after he had claimed a cross. It’s a clear foul, but also theatrical on Raya’s part. Eight seconds (the time in which goalkeepers have to release the ball from their hands) has turned into 39 seconds, courtesy of the free kick.
Brighton concede another needless free kick midway inside the Arsenal half, and after a brief debate about which player should take it, Raya eventually steps forward. Thirty-six seconds have disappeared and you get the impression that it feels like 36 hours for Hurzeler, who is going crazy.
Another Arsenal goal kick and Raya, after a customary bit of stud cleaning, drills the ball long.
That was a recurrent theme against Brighton (see the map below), a match in which the visitors’ goalkeeper played his biggest share of long passes this season.
It’s tempting to think that the short, misplaced pass that Raya made early on, and which nearly led to Brighton taking the lead, could have contributed to that approach, but the reality is that it made sense for Arsenal to play longer against Hurzeler’s team throughout.
Only Arsenal have won the ball more often in the final third this season than Brighton.
Style and risk or substance and reward? That’s an easy answer for a team that has finished as runners-up three seasons in a row. Brighton away, where Arsenal’s closest title challengers City were beaten earlier in the season, feels like a place for pragmatism in motion, not poetry.
Hurzeler is like a coiled spring in his technical area and is now playing the role of ball boy. He waits for an Arsenal player to come forward to take a throw-in and laughs, sarcastically, at how long it’s taking. Hincapie belatedly arrives, words are exchanged between him and Hurzeler, and the Arsenal defender puts a finger to his lips.
There are three minutes of added time at the end of the first half, and when Jack Hinshelwood is caught offside, Raya has another opportunity to put his foot through the ball.
The delay before that free kick tests the patience of Hurzeler and also a lone voice among the home supporters.
“Come on, Raya!” a woman screams.
A Brighton corner early in the second half takes 53 seconds, partly due to the referee dealing with some pushing and shoving involving Raya.
Not long afterwards, the Spaniard goes down clutching his left shoulder after repelling a shot from Rutter and requires treatment. While the game is held up, Arsenal make a double substitution, replacing Viktor Gyokeres and Martinelli with Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard. The game resumes two minutes later, when the ‘tactical timeout’ is over.
Hurzeler was furious with that incident afterwards. “I ask one question,” the German said. “Did you see one time in a Premier League game a goalkeeper go down three times? No? We shouldn’t waste too many words on that.”
Remarkably, it was 63 minutes before Arsenal won their first corner of the night and we finally had a chance to test Hurzeler’s pre-match theory. It is indeed more than a minute before that set piece is eventually taken, but, in mitigation, Arsenal made another substitution during that period, bringing on Riccardo Calafiori for Mosquera.
A second Arsenal corner, just a few minutes later, takes 42 seconds.
That is about par for the course for them this season.
Opta’s data shows that, on average, an Arsenal corner takes 44 seconds — the longest amount of time of any Premier League team. From their point of view, it’s well worth the wait, given they have scored an astonishing 16 goals from corners this season. Others, understandably, wish they would hurry up and get on with it.
Another Brighton foul, on Eberechi Eze in the centre of the pitch, leads to Gross, highlighted below, kicking the ball away after the whistle has gone.
Arsenal still took that free kick relatively quickly. Indeed, the booing and whistling from the home supporters had largely died down until Calafiori started to waste time during throw-ins, taking 25 seconds in the example below.
Against Brighton, though, it was Arsenal’s attacking free kicks that led to the longest delays on restarts. When Havertz was fouled in the first image below, it was another 69 seconds before Rice delivered the ball into the box.
It felt as though that kind of thing got under Brighton’s skin, which is not surprising, and made it hard for them to play with any real fluency, as well as having a negative impact on their discipline.
Kadioglu was one of four Brighton players booked — in his case for body-checking Saka off the ball as Timber prepared to take a throw-in. Another minute was lost there before the ball was back in play.
Gross, arms in the air in the third image below, was exasperated, but Kadioglu takes the blame for that hold-up.
Just before that incident, Raya had gathered a low cross and held onto the ball for longer than the eight seconds allowed, prompting Danny Welbeck to gesture to the referee. Strangely, Kavanagh had no interest in taking any disciplinary action.
And therein lies a key point: it’s up to the officials to hurry Arsenal, or any other team, along and, where appropriate, punish time-wasting. Arsenal would be fools to adopt a different approach as long as nothing changes.
On two other occasions in the match, Raya claimed the ball and released it quickly, initiating counter-attacks with his quick distribution, and that’s more in keeping with his style of goalkeeping in those scenarios.
The table below shows that only two regular Premier League ’keepers release the ball quicker than Raya, while Brighton’s Bart Verbruggen holds onto it for longer than most.
With three minutes remaining, Verbruggen turned a Havertz shot around his near post and the best part of another minute (56 seconds) slipped away before the corner was delivered.
In truth, it wasn’t pretty from Arsenal throughout at Brighton.
It was gritty, though, and that’s something that they have been accused of lacking on plenty of occasions in recent years.
To illustrate that point, in the space of little more than a minute in added time, first Hincapie, then Gabriel, next Timber, and finally Trossard headed balls away in the Arsenal penalty area.
With 97 minutes on the clock, one more goal kick followed after a wayward Brighton cross.
Raya, in keeping with what had gone before, took his time before thumping it high into the night sky as the final whistle sounded.
The ball hadn’t been in play much, but from Arsenal’s point of view, all that mattered was that it spent some time in the Brighton net. Perhaps the only surprise was that it didn’t get there via a set piece
Stay ahead with the latest updates!
Join The Podium Media on WhatsApp for real-time news alerts, breaking stories, and exclusive content delivered straight to your phone. Don’t miss a headline — subscribe now!
Chat with Us on WhatsApp
