{"id":329522,"date":"2026-03-05T03:01:08","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329522\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T03:01:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T03:01:08","slug":"arteta-defends-his-side-as-hurzeler-slams-arsenal-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/329522\/","title":{"rendered":"Arteta defends his side as Hurzeler slams Arsenal style"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mikel Arteta was defiant in the face of accusations Arsenal wasted time and faked injuries after a 1-0 win over Brighton<\/a> sent them seven points clear at the top of the Premier League.<\/p>\n

The visitors were poor at the Amex Stadium and their goal had more than a stroke of fortune as Bukayo Saka’s shot in the ninth minute bamboozled Bart Verbruggen, who will wonder how he let the ball slip through him.<\/p>\n

Thereafter Brighton were frustrated by Arsenal\u2019s habit of delaying the restart of the game at free-kicks, while David Raya went down injured on three separate occasions and required treatment on the pitch, leading head coach Fabian Hurzeler to accuse the visitors of ‘making their own rules\u2019.<\/p>\n

Arteta though made it clear he was unmoved after a dogged win, coupled with Manchester City\u2019s draw with Nottingham Forest, ensured they took a firm grip of the title race.<\/p>\n

“What a surprise,” he said when informed of Hurzeler\u2019s claims. “If you go back through previous games you will find a lot of comments like this, always.<\/p>\n

“I love my players. That\u2019s the highlight. I love my players and I love the way we compete.<\/p>\n

“When you\u2019re in the position we are in, obviously (opposition fans) want to take that away from you. That\u2019s normal, that is sport.”<\/p>\n

Asked whether he cared what other league managers thought of him and his team, he replied: “No comment.”<\/p>\n

Brighton largely dominated the game but neither side created many chances.<\/p>\n

Arsenal were a long way from at their best, careless with the ball and too accommodating in letting Brighton play through them in midfield.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, they dug in for a third league win in a row, and on a night when City dropped points at home this was one more fixture crossed out in their Premier League title push.<\/p>\n

Afterwards Hurzeler gave a coruscating assessment of the league leaders.<\/p>\n

“I think there was only one team that tried to play football today,” the Brighton boss said.<\/p>\n

“Did you see in a Premier League game a goalkeeper going down the times? No?<\/p>\n

“We shouldn\u2019t waste too many words about that tonight. We can\u2019t control these kind of things. The Premier League has to find a rule.<\/p>\n

“In the end it\u2019s about the rules. If the Premier League and referee allow everything, then it\u2019s difficult.<\/p>\n

“They make their own rules. At the moment I have the feeling they are doing their own rules.<\/p>\n

“I will never be the kind of manager who tries to win in that way. I want to develop players.<\/p>\n

“If I ask everyone in the room, did he really enjoy this game? I\u2019m sure maybe one raises his arm because he\u2019s a big Arsenal fan.<\/p>\n

“Where will this go in the future? Is this what the supporters are paying for?”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta was defiant in the face of accusations Arsenal wasted time and faked injuries after a 1-0…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":329523,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":["post-329522","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329522","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=329522"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/329522\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/329523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=329522"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=329522"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=329522"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}