Arsenal revealed as Premier League’s biggest time-wasters after Man City clash

Arsenal’s tactics against Manchester City in Sunday’s dramatic draw have come under intense scrutiny, with a series of Pep Guardiola’s players hitting out at the Gunners

Arsenal have been revealed as the biggest time-wasters in the Premier League as the debate around their tactics during Sunday’s draw with Manchester City continues to rage.

The Gunners travelled to their Premier League title rivals for an early showdown. Having fought back to take the lead following Erling Haaland’s early opener, the visitors saw Leandro Trossard sent off for a second bookable offence right at the end of the first-half.

For the second half, boss Mikel Arteta decided to set his side up for a staunch defensive action. They were able to hold City off right up until John Stones ‘ 98th minute equaliser, having successfully frustrated the hosts.

Following the game, several City players have launched furious attacks on the tactics Arsenal deployed. It appears that the Gunners are well versed in the ‘dark arts’, judging by data gathered from this season.

According to Opta, Arsenal top the table for the highest average delays seen in the Premier League. Those delays take into account the time taken to play corners, goal kicks, free-kicks, throw-ins, penalties and kick-offs.

Using data from these categories, it was found that the Gunners take an average of 31.8 seconds to restart games. That puts them narrowly ahead of second-place Leicester, with Brentford third.

At the other end of the table, West Ham were found to waste the least time, restarting matches within 23.9 seconds. Liverpool are second bottom with an average of 24.1 seconds.

HAVE YOUR SAY! Were Arsenal justified in using defensive tactics against Manchester City? Comment below.

And City themselves are at the lower end of the table, clocking in at 25.4 seconds to restart games. Gunners boss Arteta has also launched a staunch defence of his side’s more defensive tactics.

“We had to play the game that we had to play. In the first 10 or 15 minutes we couldn’t. 11 against 11, then we got much better and obviously were thrown into a very different context. Every team does,” he said.

“They played 30 seconds with 10 men. Look at what they did, it’s normal what they did for 30 seconds. We had to do it in a different way. We learned from the past as well because unfortunately we’ve been in that situation three times.

“One was with Granit after 37, 38 minutes and we conceded how many? Fully recovered [from the emotion]. It’s like a normal game. It was obviously a very emotional game at the end, but they all are in different ways to the game we played on Sunday.

“I’m looking forward to tomorrow. We already moved on and we are now ready to battle again tomorrow. It’s part of football and part of sport. After the game all that goes away and we move on. That’s it.”

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