Is Arsenal’s ‘dark arts’ reputation unfair? Numbers behind the Arteta’s time-wasting

Mikel Arteta should not bristle at accusations that Arsenal are masters of the dark arts. Despite the criticism he and his team are taking, he should embrace it.

The loaded term has been used before to describe the Gunners. But the tag came into full focus following their 2-2 draw against Premier League champions Manchester City, in which Arsenal defended with one fewer man for the entirety of the second half.

Expecting an oncoming City storm, Arteta opted not to have a single forward near Pep Guardiola’s defence. Instead he fielded a 5-4 shape (all nine outfielders behind the ball in the lowest of low blocks, defending as if their lives depended on it).

The strategy resulted in something we have never seen before. Before kick-off, no outfield player had spent 89 minutes on the pitch in a Premier League game while failing to complete a single pass (since Opta started recording passing data, at least). By full-time, it had happened twice, to Kai Havertz and Jurien Timber.

Despite having just 12.4% possession in the second half while completing 29 passes, the approach nearly earned Arsenal three points. But they didn’t escape criticism. They were even accused of playing like ‘a Championship team in the FA Cup.’

Former Manchester United midfielder Roy Keane said on Sky Sports’ The Overlap: “If Tony Pulis, Sam Allardyce, Steve Bruce or Neil Warnock set up a team like [Arsenal at Manchester City] for the second half, they are ‘dinosaurs’. When Arsenal do it, it’s called ‘brilliant’, it’s ‘concentration levels’.

“When they won the ball back, which they did every now and again, try and look after it and try and get up the pitch. There was an incident when [Ben] White just kicked it out of play, [Declan] Rice a couple of times, just kicked it up the pitch.

“This is Arsenal we’re talking about – not a Championship team in the FA Cup – that’s hanging in there.

“They got a clean sheet last year, so they can get results. I’ve got nothing wrong with them defending and going deep, but when they got it, they didn’t do anything. I’m saying when you’ve got it, still look after it. When you do get it, try and get four or five passes together. They were just booting it, like a small team with a small mentality.”

Are Arsenal time-wasters?

John Stones, who scored the late equaliser, made his general feelings about Arsenal known, stating that their visitors “have done [dark arts] for a few years—you can call it clever or dirty.” Elsewhere, Manuel Akanji and Bernardo Silva called out Arsenal is time wasting.

Injuries were Arsenal’s preferred method here. David Raya, Riccardo Calafiori, Gabriel Martinelli and Timber all took turns breaking up the game by going down. On average, the Gunners took 42.7 seconds to restart the game against City after being awarded either a corner, goal kick, free kick, or throw-in.

This was the second-highest average of any side in a game this season after Aston Villa against Wolves the day before. Before the weekend, Arsenal had held the record of 41.1 seconds against Brighton — a game in which they were also down to 10 men.

Raya played a massive part through his 12 goal kicks, each of which took an average of 45.3 seconds to complete. That means as well as making several vital saves and interventions, he wasted over nine minutes of the match in total.

And Raya bought more than time. In one case Myles Lewis-Skelley — an Arsenal youngster who was booked before even making his senior debut — appeared to pass on instructions to the ‘keeper while warming up near the Arsenal goal. Raya then went down, with Arteta using the break in play to deliver a team talk to his 10 outfielders.

Most Premier League teams time-waste. However, according to Opta, even before gameweek five Arsenal averaged the longest delay in restarting matches of any side this season (31.8 seconds), narrowly ahead of Leicester (31.7) and Brentford (31.2).

For context, on the opposite end of the scale West Ham averages just 23.9 seconds, slightly quicker than Liverpool (24.1) and Tottenham (24.2).

But are Arsenal’s antics so uniquely shocking that, according to the Daily Mail, Premier League clubs needed to raise concerns about “gamesmanship” to the PGMOL?

Asked whether the ‘dark arts’ label was fair, Arteta himself said: “No comment. I’ve been [at Man City] for four years, I have all the information. Believe me.

“[..] I always prefer the facts to words or supposing things. Let’s see who is available [against Bolton] and then we can talk about dark arts or these things or if it’s a reality.”

Arteta also pointed to a spell of time-wasting from City when they were briefly down to ten men.

There’s also the fact that the last time Arsenal played City with a numerical disadvantage, they lost 5-0 in August 2021.

“We learnt from the past,” Arteta added. “Unfortunately we’ve been in the same situation a few times. We were in that same situation with Granit [Xhaka sent off] after 38 minutes and we lost 5-0. We’d better learn. If not I would be thick, very thick.”

Since 2023-24, Arsenal have been booked 14 times for time-wasting. That puts them high up the list, but there are also two clubs — Chelsea (17) and Wolves (15) — ahead of them.

Optics-wise, this style of game management feels more like something from Mourinho’s playbook than Arsene Wenger’s.

Ultimately, though, Mourinho won more titles. Time-wasting is way to gain an edge, and success is all about edges. Aston Villa have actually been carded the same number of times for it as Arsenal and are back in the European Cup for the first time since 80s.

As the old adage goes, defence wins championships and slowing down games to preserve scorelines is ultimately a defensive tool. On that front, Arsenal currently boast the league’s second-best. They have conceded only three goals, two of which came when they were a man down.

Arteta clearly believes the potential reward outweighs the risk. It has negative associations, but the Gunners and their manager should proudly wear it like a badge of honour. The ends justify the means, and if they are successful in ending a 21-year Premier League title drought, which their attack is more than capable of achieving, no one will look back on this; instead, they’ll be marvelling at how Arteta has transformed Arsenal into an inflexible, determined, and winning team, unlike any other since the Invincibles.

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