Recently, the Arsenal Football Club is not only referred to as Arsenal FC – but also as FC Eckball. Which isn’t meant kindly.

With more games played, Arsenal are seven points ahead of Manchester City and their first championship since 2004 is within reach. This does not cause exuberance in England, on the contrary.

Recently the Daily Mail was furious about the “depressing truth” that the Premier League is probably “won by the ugliest team in the country”. For football legend Paul Scholes, Arsenal would be the “most boring” champions in history.

Accusation of cynical corner goals: England’s new standard trend

The aversion to the club around national player Kai Havertz has two reasons. On the one hand, an excess of coolly calculated, even cynical standard goals. On the other hand, the allegation of unsportsmanlike waste of time.

The Londoners in England are merely pioneers of an already prevailing trend. Currently, 27 percent of all goals come from standard situations, followed by Italy (24%), Germany (22), Spain (19) and France (17).

Arsenal’s corner-taking methodology also affected Manuel Neuer

Liverpool coach Arne Slot said what many people think: This technocratic focus is damaging their reputation. “My football heart doesn’t like that,” said Slot. “Most of the games I watch in the Premier League don’t bring me joy. If you ask me what I mean by football, I think of the Barcelona team 10 to 15 years ago.” A reference to the golden Barca era around Lionel Messi.

The fact that Arsenal is considered a symbol of a fierce winning machine is due not least to the way How the team gets to their standard goals: with massive chaos.

In his native Netherlands, Liverpool’s Slot said, such goals are disallowed “and fouls on goalkeepers are whistled. Here, on the other hand, you can almost punch a goalkeeper in the face and the referee still says: ‘Just keep playing.'”

Accusation of wasting time: Arsenal opponents wait a total of over two hours

Yes, if only they would play! That’s the second big point of criticism: that Arsenal takes a maximum amount of time off the clock with terrible regularity. For corners, free kicks, throw-ins, goal kicks and other interruptions.

Against Brighton, The data service provider Opta calculated that the Londoners delayed the game a total of 59 times. Exactly 30:51 minutes passed unused. To put it into perspective: There have already been 13 games with an even larger margin this Premier League season; but not from a club, who has the best chance of winning the championship.

According to Opta, Arsenal are one of the English teams that waste the most time before corners (45 seconds) and throw-ins (20). Of course that adds up. Overall, i.e. based on the entire season, Arsenal’s rivals are now waiting for over two hours…

Brighton coach Fabian Hürzeler was upset about the pace. “This isn’t football,” he raged after the 1-0 defeat against the league leaders, and he would “never” adapt this style. Fittingly, the International Football Association Board decided last weekend that referees will be allowed to use a five-second countdown from next season – if they are suspected of wasting time.

Beautiful goals are for YouTube, says the Arsenal coach

Of course, Arsenal doesn’t care about any of this: not at all. “People will say what they want,” commented striker Bukayo Saka laconically. “Whether we play the most beautiful football or score to a standard, they will still talk.”

Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta, a scholar of Pep Guardiola’s school of templates, reacted with incomprehension to all the thunder. “Beautiful” goals, he snapped, were celebrated no differently than pragmatic ones. At best they are something “for YouTube”.

Maybe the man is right.