Arsenal’s reputation for delays, dark arts and set-piece dependency have been underscored by the latest statistics regarding ball-in-play time across the current Premier League season.
Mikel Arteta’s side—whose fans have taken to singing “set piece again, olé, olé”—have left a glut of embittered opponents in their wake cursing the amount of time which goes behind each dead-ball delivery.
Liverpool manager Arne Slot notably called these tactics a “f—— joke” last season while Manchester City defender John Stones wasn’t too impressed either.
“I wouldn’t say they have mastered it, but they have done it for a few years now, so we knew to expect that,” the England centre back sighed after a particularly prickly meeting with the Gunners at the Etihad Stadium last term. “You can call it clever or dirty, whichever way you want to put it. But they break up the game, which upsets the rhythm. They use it to their advantage.”
These delays are exacerbated at set-play situations. Throughout the first seven weeks of the new Premier League season, Arsenal have taken a combined 40 minutes and six seconds to prepare for corner kicks, at least 11 minutes and 12 seconds more than any other team in England’s top flight, per .
