Fabian Hurzeler in angry clash with Mikel Arteta after slamming Arsenal tactics

Fabian Hurzeler and Mikel Arteta weren't afraid to make their feelings known on the sideline during their clash at the Amex Stadium on Wednesday night

Fabian Hurzeler and Mikel Arteta clashed on numerous occasions during Arsenal's visit to the Amex Stadium. The Brighton boss wasn't afraid to let the Spaniard know exactly how he felt about almost every twist and turn on Wednesday night, and tensions almost boiled over in the first half.

Hurzeler and Arteta exchanged a few choice words inside the opening quarter of an hour when Cristhian Mosquera was booked by Chris Kavanagh. To the disbelief of the Gunners boss and the travelling support, Kaoru Mitoma and Diego Gómez went unpunished for similar challenges.

The German continued to patrol his technical area for the remainder of the half, regularly approaching the fourth official, David Webb, to protest and seek explanations for on-field decisions. Then, just moments before the second half got back underway, Hurzeler was in the referee's ear again.

The 33-year-old seemed visibly frustrated with his side, having gone 1-0 down early into the tie. Bukayo Saka fired Arsenal in front with a deflected effort from outside the box, and not a set-piece, which Hürzeler feared most.

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The Seagulls boss was just as complimentary of the Gunners in his pre-match press conference. He described Arteta's side as 'the best in the world at set-pieces', but bemoaned the time it takes them to take corners.

"Sometimes they spend one minute to take a corner if they are leading," said Hurzeler. "The main topic is to make a clear rule on how much time you can waste for a corner, for a throw-in, for a free-kick.

"I think no-one recognises it, but when Arsenal have a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take a corner. Therefore, I think we just have to make clear rules. The game is changing so much.

"I have the opinion that every supporter who pays a lot of money to go to the stadiums and watch our games should see the same net-to-game time because they pay a lot of money.

"They want to see a football event and they don't want to see maybe 50 minutes the ball is in the game and 40 minutes the game is not. Therefore, that's how I see it, but I think we won't change these rules immediately."

On how he plans to combat Arsenal's physicality, Hurzeler said: "We have a way to defend corners, we have a way to defend throw-ins. We have a way to defend free-kicks and it's very important that you stick to it, you keep working on your principles.

"Because you can always improve these kinds of principles. If you always try to jump from one thing to another thing, then the players always have to adapt and they never get this deep thinking of our principles.

"Therefore, it's definitely a big strength from Arsenal. They do it in an impressive way this season. They have a lot of good takers, a lot of physicality, a lot of good blocks, so it's definitely something we have to take care of, but we will stick to our principles."