Brighton manager Fabian Hürzeler was far from satisfied with Arsenal’s tactics in their 1-0 win at the Amex, and Gunners head coach Mikel Arteta also spoke out.
Mikel Arteta hits back at Hürzeler’s comments (Image: Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta was involved in a war of words with Fabian Hürzeler after Arsenal went seven points clear at the top of the table.
Hürzeler launched a scathing attack on Arsenal’s performance and time-wasting tactics after Bukayo Saka gave the Gunners victory as Manchester City lost at home to Nottingham Forest.
Brighton manager Hürzeler called for the Premier League to change the rules to eliminate wasted time, insisting he would never ask his players to play like that.
Hürzeler said: “I will never be a manager who tries to play like that. The Premier League needs rules… it needs rules… it needs limits.”
“Only one team tried to win the game. I have one question: ‘Have you ever seen a goalie go down three times to get treatment?'” I don’t want to waste time talking about it.
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“If you ask everyone in this room if they enjoyed the game, someone will probably raise their hand because he’s a big Arsenal fan. If they win the Premier League, he doesn’t care how… and you can see they’re doing everything to win the Premier League.”
But when asked about Hürzeler’s comments, Arteta smiled and hit back: “What a surprise.”
Asked to elaborate more on what that meant, Arteta said: “If you just go back to previous games, you’ll always find a lot of comments like this. I love the players, that’s the highlight. I love the players, we love the players and we love the way we compete.”
Arteta paid tribute to his players and their resilience, with Saka scoring in his 300th appearance for Arsenal, giving the Gunners a huge boost in the title race.
Mikel Arteta and Fabian Hürzeler engaged in a war of words (Image: Getty Images)
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Arteta added: “What he’s doing is unbelievable… We’re honored to have him! He’s had an unbelievable number of games for his age.”
“For him to do what he’s been doing and the stats he’s had related to those games is really unbelievable. So it was a great night for him.”
Arteta also revealed that he only realized City had dropped points in their 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest after he went to the away side to celebrate with Arsenal fans.
He added: “As I was walking up to the supporters, I got a reaction and I said, “What happened?” There was something a little strange about it.
“From the first moment, I mentioned it. The energy, the passion, the positivity that they brought to the team. It was great. A lot of moments I thought we were playing very close to them, and that helped a lot.”
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