Fabian Hurzeler has a point about Arsenal — but Arne Slot will get his Liverpool wish eventually

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler didn't hold back when criticizing Arsenal, with Liverpool head coach Arne Slot also not particularly keen on how the Premier League has changed

Fabian Hurzeler and Arne Slot.(Image: Getty Images)

Arne Slot has been more than willing to speak his mind on set-pieces this season. This week, when he expressed the view that the Premier League is a worse spectacle as a result of that change towards a more physical game, it was hard to disagree.

Pep Guardiola hinted the following day that he felt the same way, but, amid a title battle with chief instigators Arsenal, he felt it was wise to avoid creating headlines. The Manchester City boss admitted he agreed with Slot, but kept his counsel, before Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler went nuclear.

"I will never be the type of manager who tries to win that way," the German said after his side lost to the Gunners on Wednesday. Mikel Arteta refused to be drawn on those comments, but there is no doubt that the movement towards dead balls being so important has changed the game. Liverpool did not see that coming and is playing catch-up; Arsenal looks set to win the league off the back of it.

Fundamentally, Arteta believed that he couldn't beat Manchester City at their own game, so he changed the trajectory and focused on what he knew his players could come out on top in.

There is a strong argument that Arsenal, with players like Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice, could actually play a much more expansive game — only Manchester City has scored more goals from open play this season — but it has, unequivocally, gone down a different path.

Arsenal is set-piece focused and clever with time-wasting, but if it leads to a first Premier League title in 22 years, it will of course have been a success. In the long term, though, the set-piece obsession across the division is not here to stay.

Just as under-11s teams across the country now split their center-backs and play out from the back like a Guardiola team, the game takes note of trends and patterns, consciously or otherwise.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta(Image: Photo by Catherine Ivill - AMA/Getty Images)

As a result of Arsenal being successful with set-pieces and turning the Premier League into a disrupted and stunted spectacle, plus the likes of Brentford, who have been heading down this route for some time, more and more sides have got involved.

Pretty much everyone else has slowly helped edge the Premier League further and further towards set-pieces by copying the trend. As a result of that creeping in, every corner or throw-in now takes 30 seconds to a minute.

"Let’s hope the one that wins the World Cup has a great style of play, wins it by scoring open-play goal after open-play goal and doesn’t win it for a different reason," Slot said ahead of the trip to Wolves.

Even Liverpool, though, has needed to get on board with the set-piece trend to turn its results around. Arguably more by accident than design, it leads the way this calendar year for goals scored via set-pieces. In a way, if you can't beat them, join them.

Mikel Arteta and Arne Slot shake hands before the Premier League clash between Arsenal and Liverpool.(Image: David Price/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

There is an argument that if Arsenal wins the Premier League this season, that will be vindication. If that proves to be the winning formula, shouldn't everyone try that?

More likely, though, rule changes are coming. For the World Cup, a similar countdown when a goalkeeper has the ball in their hands will be applied to corners, goal kicks and throw-ins. It is possible that it is just the start.

Because the Premier League needs to keep itself as the best in the world — not just the most competitive, but the most enjoyable to watch — it cannot and will not allow the wrestling and the disruptive time-wasting to continue.

That isn't just Arsenal — far from it — but an endemic across the entire division.

You can bet that at the start of next season, there will at least be a directive to clamp down on the endless preparations for set-pieces and the manhandling that goes on inside the penalty area, because both things make the game worse to watch, and therefore the product less marketable.

And you only have to look at the game between Aston Villa and Chelsea at Villa Park for a clear example of what matches can be like if the two sides decide to go at each other, attack, and not slow things down.

Liverpool signed the likes of Florian Wirtz and Hugo Ekitike because they are the best out there in terms of playing the game on the floor — the most entertaining and enjoyable style for spectators in the stadium and at home — and not for grappling and scrapping for things in the air.

While that hasn't proven to be the case yet, soccer goes in cycles. For ultimately financial reasons if nothing else, it is in the Premier League's interest — not just Hurzeler and Liverpool's — to turn the tide back towards matches that you actually want to watch.