It got us at The Athletic thinking. Was Hurzeler merely articulating what others in the game are too diplomatic to say? Is respect for Arsenal\u2019s progress under Arteta really as grudging within the football industry as it is among rival fans on social media?<\/p>\n
To try to answer those questions, we spoke to various sources within the Premier League: two club executives, a\u00a0senior recruitment figure, an academy coach, a player, a scout and a set-piece analyst \u2014 all of whom agreed to speak freely on the condition of anonymity in order to protect their position.<\/p>\n
We also trawled through various interviews over the past couple of years to try to present a clearer picture of how perceptions of Arsenal have changed among some of their rivals \u2014 how respect has grown or, in some cases, diminished as Arteta\u2019s team have become more uncompromising in pursuit of success.<\/p>\n
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\n Bart Verbruggen punches the ball with many Arsenal and Brighton players around him (Shaun Botterill\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
An analyst at a Premier League club had a sinking feeling. He had seen his team fall behind against Arsenal and, in the 15 minutes that followed, any potential route back into the game seemed to close.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou analyse them beforehand and you look for weaknesses,\u201d the analyst says. \u201cYou might see one player is more susceptible to being pressed in the build-up. You might feel you can restrict them if you can force them to play more down their left than their right, or if you can find certain spaces when you\u2019re counter-attacking.<\/p>\n
\u201cAt 0-0 you feel you\u2019ve got a chance of frustrating them. But once you fall behind, different story. The gaps you thought were there are no longer there. With the Manchester City and Liverpool teams of recent years, their approach didn\u2019t change massively from 0-0 to 1-0 to 2-0. But with this Arsenal team, everything becomes even more compact. It\u2019s incredibly hard if you fall behind against them.\u201d<\/p>\n
An executive at another club offers a similar view. \u201cThey\u2019re like a python,\u201d he says. \u201cThey squeeze the life out of you. It\u2019s strangulating. They play this very constricting, incredibly effective brand of football. The third-best defence in this league is Everton and they have conceded 50 per cent more goals (33) than Arsenal have (22). Arsenal are ruthlessly efficient and they capitalise on set pieces.\u201d<\/p>\n
If any of that sounds grudging, the executive insists it is not. \u201cWhen I talk to people around our club or in the one degree away, there\u2019s tremendous respect for Arsenal\u2019s capability.\u201d<\/p>\n
The analyst shares that admiration. \u201cTheir set plays are elite,\u201d he says. \u201cThree things: 1) their analysis in pinpointing their strengths, the opposition\u2019s weaknesses and how to exploit them, 2) the deliveries from (Bukayo) Saka and (Declan) Rice, 3) the number of aerial threats they have, their movement and the way Gabriel in particular attacks the ball.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil recently there was almost a 50\/50 split across the league between inswinging and outswinging corners. You had teams like Liverpool scoring a lot from outswingers. Arsenal were an outlier in focusing so much on inswingers. But you look now and everyone is following what Arsenal do. I said earlier that you don\u2019t mind them attacking down their left. But at the same time, you\u2019re terrified of conceding corners down that side, with Rice whipping them in.\u201d<\/p>\n
The analyst says his own team have tried to replicate elements of Arsenal\u2019s approach: not only the way they crowd the six-yard area and deliver their corners but also small details like \u201chow slowly and deliberately their defenders walk up from the halfway line\u201d, which is designed to build tension among their opponents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love what they do,\u201d the analyst says. \u201cAnalysts and data people love that side of the game \u2014 analysis, attention to detail, repetition, seeing pre-rehearsed routines work in a match situation. Whether coaches enjoy it so much, it probably depends who you ask. \u201d<\/p>\n
As well as Hurzeler, Liverpool coach Arne Slot has been critical of this season\u2019s trend towards increased emphasis on set pieces and the way they are policed \u2014 or not \u2014 by match officials. Last week, he told reporters that \u201cmost of the games I see in the Premier League\u201d this season \u201care not for me a joy to watch\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Slot has not criticised Arsenal or any other club specifically. On the contrary he has urged his Liverpool team to embrace the set-piece trend, which has brought dividends in recent weeks<\/a>.<\/p>\n Pep Guardiola, whom Arteta worked under at Manchester City as assistant coach, has said similar. \u201cWe are moving in that direction,\u201d the Manchester City manager said. \u201cI pay more attention to set-pieces than when I started my career in Barcelona, for sure. Much more.\u201d<\/p>\n Others have praised Arsenal effusively. Brentford coach Keith Andrews has called them \u201cthe best team in the country\u201d, citing \u201cso many talented individuals\u201d, \u201cthe mentality he (Arteta) has instilled in the group\u201d, \u201cthe way Mikel has set them up\u201d and \u201chow they can hurt you in different phases of the game\u201d.<\/p>\n Burnley\u2019s Scott Parker has called them \u201can unbelievably well-coached team, a team that solves situations \u2026 a fluid team, (\u2026) definitely not a team that just relies on set plays\u201d. Bournemouth coach Andoni Iraola has highlighted the \u201celite\u201d level of their goalkeeper Raya and central defenders William Saliba and Gabriel in particular.<\/p>\n \n Other managers, such as Brentford\u2019s Keith Andrews, have praised Mikel Arteta\u2019s side (Vince Mignott\/MB Media\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n David Moyes, whose Everton team face them on Saturday, says Arsenal have been \u201cbrilliant\u201d all season, \u201cin the top one or two teams in Europe\u201d. \u201cI hear quite a lot of criticism of Arsenal,\u201d he said. \u201c(But) when you\u2019re in football and you actually know what happens and what works, they\u2019re doing amazing to be leading the league and being out there.\u201d<\/p>\n As for Arsenal\u2019s Champions League opponents, Diego Simeone described them earlier in October as \u201cthe best team Atletico Madrid have faced this season; they run and run and there\u2019s quality all over the pitch\u201d. Inter coach Cristian Chivu said Arsenal and Bayern Munich are the two best teams in Europe. Bayer Leverkusen coach Kasper Hjulmand called them \u201cone of the best teams in the world\u201d before their 1-1 draw on Wednesday.<\/p>\n In player recruitment circles, their transfer strategy draws plaudits, particularly in comparison with some of their rivals\u2019 records. A senior recruitment figure at one club points out that Arsenal\u2019s net transfer expenditure over the past three seasons is the highest in the Premier League \u2014 \u201cThey have been able to keep buying at a significant level without selling at a significant level\u201d \u2014 but adds that, like Manchester City and Liverpool previously, they have succeeded in buying a group of players (notably Raya, Saliba, Gabriel, Rice, Jurrien Timber, Martin Odegaard) who have grown together under Arteta to form the nucleus of a title-challenging team.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you look at the squad Arteta inherited (in 2019) and the squad they have now, the difference is night and day,\u201d the recruitment figure says. \u201cThey have evolved over that period and everything they have done \u2014 whether it\u2019s player recruitment or the work they do on set pieces \u2014 has a real clarity to it. All of it has been driven by Arteta. You have to say he has done an exceptional job.\u201d<\/p>\n The praise Arsenal\u2019s performances attract at elite level, where the stakes are so high, is not necessarily echoed throughout the game.<\/p>\n An academy coach at a Premier League club suggests the football we are seeing in this season\u2019s top flight \u2014 more physical, more attritional, more geared towards set pieces and choreographed routines, with a sharp drop in the number of goals scored from open play \u2014 is a concern and that Arsenal have become \u201cposter boys\u201d for this approach.<\/p>\n \u201cIt took English football years to get away from this mentality of wanting big, strong, powerful players \u2014 and to realise we needed to produce technical players who could do the same things the German, Spanish and French players were doing,\u201d the coach says.<\/p>\n \u201cI look at the technical players our academies have produced over the last 10 years and it\u2019s been such a positive for English football. When I see the way Arsenal play, which obviously is very effective, I worry it will take us back towards this ultra-physical style we were trying to get away from.<\/p>\n \u201cIt also disappoints me that (Myles) Lewis-Skelly and (Ethan) Nwaneri, two of the best young players in the country, have barely had a kick in the Premier League this season. Nwaneri has ended up going on loan (to Marseille). I get that Arteta\u2019s priority is to win trophies, but are you saying Lewis-Skelly and Nwaneri couldn\u2019t contribute to that?<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t want a situation where a brilliant academy is producing brilliant players and they can\u2019t get a game in the Premier League. Again, that\u2019s something I hoped we had moved away from.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Ethan Nwaneri has been loaned out to Marseille (Catherine Steenkeste\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n The academy coach echoes Hurzeler\u2019s distaste for the delays that inevitably come with a heightened emphasis on set pieces. \u201cIt\u2019s not just Arsenal \u2014 others are just as bad \u2014 but the time they take over every corner and every free kick bothers me as a coach,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the time-wasting. I watched their game at Brighton last week and it was as if they were only really happy when the ball was off the pitch. A lot of people won\u2019t care, but it\u2019s very different to the Manchester City team who have set the standard for the past 10 years.\u201d<\/p>\n A scout at a leading Premier League club is similarly unimpressed. He too draws unflattering comparisons between recent title-winning teams at Manchester City (\u201ca joy to watch, intricacy, fluidity\u201d) and Liverpool (\u201cchaotic, exciting, very much on the front foot\u201d) and this Arsenal side (\u201cefficient, pragmatic, nothing we haven\u2019t seen before\u201d). \u201cBut it\u2019s working for them,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n Talk of time-wasting and \u201cgame management\u201d is never far from the conversation these days where Arsenal are concerned.<\/p>\n In the game at Brighton that Hurzeler highlighted, Arsenal took a total of 30 minutes and 51 seconds to restart play, i.e. their 59 restarts (from goal kicks, throw-ins, free kicks and corner kicks) took an average of 31.4 seconds.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2260859830-scaled.jpg\")
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