What PL clubs are telling refs about Arsenal, managers discussing it among themselves – report

Premier League clubs have complained to PGMOL over Arsenal using the dark arts, sending concerns about gamesmanship and the Gunners’ repeated use of the dark arts throughout last season to the refereeing body, according to the Daily Mail.

Apparent gamesmanship deployed by Arsenal was the talk of the other Premier League clubs last year, with coaching staff and analysts across the English top-flight openly discussing the ‘dark arts’ among themselves.

The North London club deployed their time-wasting and delaying tactics against Manchester City on Sunday, leaving their opponents incensed by the long periods of stoppage in the game.

Arsenal midfielder Myles Lewis-Skelly got booked while on the touchline for relaying a message to goalkeeper David Raya to delay the proceedings ahead of a goal kick.

The Spaniard fell to the floor and was treated for long, which allowed manager Mikel Arteta hold a team talk with his players as they looked to hold on to their lead with ten players.

While they are not the only club doing it, the Gunners have picked up bookings for kicking the ball away to stop the opposition from quickly playing a freekick.

It proved costly against Brighton & Hove Albion and Man City, with Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard getting sent off in those games after getting second yellow cards.

Arsenal became famous for obstructing or blocking opponents, including opposition goalkeepers during set pieces last season, with Ben White often getting the job done by annoying the opposition goalkeeper and with other dark arts.

It led to a rule change to set-pieces getting introduced in the Premier League, with the offence of holding the opposition – blocking or obstructing – now being penalised more stringently in set-pieces when an attacker is trying to stop the movement of an opponent.

Attempts to impede opponents during free kicks and corners will be further clamped down on this term and going forward, with teams no longer allowed to be able to obstruct opponents.

Time-wasting will also be frowned upon, and PGMOL have taken the complaints of other Premier League clubs concerning Arsenal seriously.