Footage has re-emerged of Arsenal appearing to deliberately waste time during a crucial match with Liverpool at Anfield last year, after the Gunners were accused of using the ‘dark arts’ in their draw with Manchester City on Sunday.
The top of the table clash at the Etihad threatened to boil over on multiple occasions, with City furious at Arsenal for slowing the game down as they tried to hang on to their 2-1 lead before John Stones rescued a point for the hosts in stoppage time.
After Leandro Trossard was given a second yellow card for kicking the ball away on the stroke of half time, several Arsenal players sat down on the pitch to receive treatment in the second half, including goalkeeper David Raya after being instructed to by teenage substitute Myles Lewis-Skelly, who was subsequently booked.
Bernardo Silva and Manuel Akanji hit out at Arsenal’s tactics, but it seems Mikel Arteta‘s men have used this strategy before when they travelled to Anfield in April 2023.
Arsenal took an early lead through Gabriel Martinelli, but Liverpool went close to an equaliser when Andy Robertson rifled his shot narrowly wide. As the ball whistled past the post, goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale sat down inside his six-yard box after looking over to the dugout and called for the physio, while Arteta gestured for his players to come over to him for a pep talk.
Aaron Ramsdale sat down in his six-yard box after appearing to be told to go down by the Arsenal bench in last year’s clash with Liverpool
He stayed down for almost a minute while Mikel Arteta gave a pep talk to the rest of the team
Arteta was able to get his message across and Arsenal doubled their lead shortly afterwards
Just over 10 minutes later, Gabriel went down straight after another big chance for Liverpool
This time, the Arsenal physio was seen running onto the pitch before the referee had even gestured for him to enter the field of play
The time-wasting tactics have re-emerged after Arsenal were accused of using ‘dark arts’ against Man City on Sunday
The whole team – minus Ramsdale – spoke with Arteta for the best part of a minute before the England goalkeeper got back to his feet and the game continued.
A little over 10 minutes later, and with Arsenal now 2-0 up thanks to a Gabriel Jesus header, Mo Salah raced through on goal but put his effort past Ramsdale’s near post.
It was another major let-off for the visitors, and as the ball came back off the advertising hoarding an Arsenal player kicked the ball away towards the touchline.
This time, Gabriel sat down on the floor, and before the referee had even blown his whistle for him to receive treatment, the Arsenal physio raced onto the pitch.
Three Arsenal players made their way over to gather more instructions from Arteta, with the restart delayed by around 90 seconds on this occasion.
Liverpool went on to pull off a stunning comeback, with goals from Salah and Roberto Firmino earning them a 2-2 draw as they dented Arsenal’s title hopes.
Arteta’s side fell away in the final weeks of the campaign after that stalemate, as they finished five points behind champions City.
But they frustrated Liverpool with some of their tactics at Anfield, and got under City’s skin this weekend as well.
Arsenal are currently top of the time-wasting table in the Premier League this season, with it taking the north London club an average of 31.8 seconds to restart the game from corners, goal kicks, free-kicks, penalties, throw-ins and kick-offs.
Arsenal were also criticised for their defensive tactics once they went down to 10 men on Sunday.
David Raya went down in the second half after being told to by Myles Lewis-Skelly
Gabriel Martinelli was another player who went down for treatment as Arsenal tried to hang on for a famous win
They registered just 12.5 per cent possession in the second half, while Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber did not complete a single successful pass in the whole game.
But Arteta insists it would have been ‘very thick’ not to go ultra-defensive in the match, and refused to take any blame for Trossard getting sent off for kicking the ball away, just weeks after Declan Rice saw red for the same infringement.
When asked whether he would tell his players to stop kicking the ball away in the future, Arteta responded sarcastically: ‘Just leave the ball, don’t touch the ball. We play without the ball.’
He then defended his tactics, and pointed out that he had learnt from playing with 10 men at the Etihad before, having seen his side lose 5-0 when Granit Xhaka was sent off in 2021.
‘Well, we had to play the game that we had to play,’ said Arteta.
Mikel Arteta defended his tactics against City and refused to take the blame for Leandro Trossard being sent off
Trossard was given his marching orders for kicking the ball away on the stroke of half time
‘The first 10, 15 minutes, we couldn’t with 11 vs 11. Then we got much better. Then we were thrown in a very different context and did what every team does.
‘They played 30 seconds with 10 men. Look what they did for 30 seconds. It’s normal what they did. We had to do it in a different way.
‘We learnt from the past. Unfortunately we’ve been in the same situation a few times. We were in that same situation with Granit (Xhaka) after 38 minutes and we lost 5-0. We’d better learn. If not I would be thick, very thick.’
