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Fabian Hurzeler bemoaned Arsenal's 'time-wasting' during Brighton's 1-0 defeat to the Gunners by claiming 'only one team tried to play football'
Fabian Hurzeler has urged football's law-makers to clamp down on time-wasting after he launched a brutal attack on Premier League leaders Arsenal following Brighton's narrow 1-0 defeat to the Gunners at the Amex on Wednesday night.
The 33-year-old German tactician, who accused Mikel Arteta's side of strategically delaying play during his pre-match press conference, said after the game: “[We need] a clear rule on how much time you can take for a corner, a free-kick, because no-one recognises it.
"When Arsenal have a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take a corner."
In the past few weeks, pundits and supporters have heavily scrutinised Arsenal's style and ability to score goals from set-pieces but Albion were infuriated by both the number of stoppages and the amount of time the ball was not live.
Arsenal took a collective 30 minutes and 51 seconds to restart play at Brighton which is statistically their highest total in a top-flight match this season. It's the 22nd longest total of any team this term.
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Crunch the numbers and the Gunners spent an average of 31.4 seconds to restart play from goal kicks, throw-ins, corners and free-kicks, though there have been 195 separate instances of other sides taking longer in a Premier League fixture this season.
Brighton like, as Hurzeler notes, to get the ball back in play quickly. They average just 26.5 seconds per restart and only Liverpool (25.8 seconds) take less time to get the ball rolling again.
Arsenal average 30.2 seconds - Sunderland, Brentford, Leeds and Crystal Palace all take longer - and also take the most time (average of 44.5 seconds) to set-up corners out of any opponent in the Premier League.
But what's interesting is there have also been instances where Brighton have bided their time to restart play. In the 2-1 victory over Manchester City at the Amex back in August, they took an average of 38.7 seconds per restart.
Against Chelsea when they won 3-1 at Stamford Bridge in September, they average 33.7 seconds per restart and they also averaged 33.2s against Brentford last month when they were 2-0 victors at the Gtech.
The common dominator? Brighton were triumphant in all three games and clearly, much like Arsenal on Wednesday night, there was an underlying desire to run down the clock, which every club in the division is undeniably guilty of.
The Gunners have spent 45 per cent of their Premier League season ahead in matches, therefore, it's only natural not to rush the ball back into play when the opponent is chasing the game.
Another key statistic that is important contextually is that Arsenal had 12 goal-kicks last night versus Brighton, which is the most they've had in any Premier League game all season.
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