{"id":532,"date":"2026-03-05T12:11:40","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=532"},"modified":"2026-03-05T12:11:40","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T12:11:40","slug":"fabian-hurzeler-slammed-arsenals-time-wasting-against-brighton-but-their-ball-in-play-time-is-above-average-this-season-football-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/?p=532","title":{"rendered":"Fabian Hurzeler slammed Arsenal’s time-wasting against Brighton but their ball in play time is above average this season | Football News"},"content":{"rendered":"


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Fabian Hurzeler sensationally accused Arsenal of “making their own rules” and applying time-wasting tactics as they beat Brighton at the Amex Stadium, so were his accusations justified?<\/p>\n

Bukayo Saka’s ninth-minute goal proved decisive in a stormy game on the south coast during which Brighton’s fans and head coach became incensed over perceived delays by the visitors.<\/p>\n

After Brighton were unable to turn their dominance of possession into goals, Hurzeler vented his fury in his press conference, slamming Arsenal’s approach, saying “only one side tried to play football” and calling for rules to be introduced around time-wasting.<\/p>\n

Hurzeler was not alone in feeling the game was an unattractive spectacle. Few would argue otherwise. But Arsenal’s average percentage of ball in play time of 55.6 per cent is actually above this season’s Premier League average, and only slightly lower than Brighton’s on 56.1 per cent. What else do the numbers tell us?<\/p>\n

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How much time did Arsenal waste?<\/h3>\n

Hurzeler had raised the issue of time-wasting before the game, accusing Arsenal of taking more than a minute to prepare for corners in games when they are in front.<\/p>\n

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Highlights from the Premier League match between Brighton and Arsenal<\/span>
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That complaint was justified, with the Gunners have taken the longest over corners on average of all Premier League clubs this season, according to Opta, at 44.5 seconds.<\/p>\n

At the Amex Stadium, though, factoring corners, free-kicks and throws, Arsenal’s average restart time was 31.4 seconds.<\/p>\n

Opta say that across 285 Premier League games this season, there have been 195 instances of teams taking longer over their restarts.<\/p>\n

Arsenal’s 31.4 second average against Brighton sits only just above their season average of 30.2 seconds per delay.<\/p>\n

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There are five Premier League sides who take longer over their restarts on average than Arsenal in Leeds, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Brentford and Sunderland. Brighton, meanwhile, rank as the second-quickest at 26.5 seconds.<\/p>\n

While Arsenal’s average delay time was not especially high during their win over Brighton, the volume of delays certainly made for a stop-start encounter.<\/p>\n

Opta say Arsenal’s total of 59 delays was the eighth-highest by any side in a Premier League game this season. Their total time delay of 1,851 seconds was the 22nd highest.<\/p>\n

What happened with Raya?<\/h3>\n

Hurzeler singled out Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya over time-wasting. “I ask one question, did you see in a Premier League game a goalkeeper going down three times?” he said.<\/p>\n

But watching the game back, Sky Sports<\/em> only found two instances of Raya going to ground.<\/p>\n

The first came in the 37th minute, when Kaoru Mitoma was penalised for putting an arm across the goalkeeper as, ironically, he motioned to take a quick throw having claimed a Diego Gomez cross.<\/p>\n

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\n Raya was deemed to have been fouled by Mitoma as he motioned to quickly throw the ball out to Bukayo Saka
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The delay to take the subsequent free-kick totalled 41 seconds, but included a conversation between Raya and referee Chris Kavanagh after the goalkeeper had quickly got back to his feet.<\/p>\n

The other instance of Raya going down came in the 58th minute, when he received treatment following a save from Georginio Rutter.<\/p>\n

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\n Arsenal already had Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard waiting to come on when Raya went to ground for a second time in the 58th minute
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The delay was much longer on that occasion, totalling two minutes and eight seconds, but that was largely because Arsenal made two substitutions, introducing Kai Havertz and Leandro Trossard, who were already waiting to come on when Raya went to ground.<\/p>\n

How long was the ball in play?<\/h3>\n

Hurzeler also raged against the ball in play time. “One game, you play 60 minutes, and then when you play against Arsenal, only 50 minutes, so it’s 10 minutes difference,” he said. “Is this for what the supporters are paying for? Do you get my point?”<\/p>\n

Few would argue that Wednesday’s game was easy on the eye but the ball-in-play time at the Amex was actually 53 minutes and 58 seconds, according to Opta, accounting for 53.5 per cent of the 100 minutes and 54 seconds played.<\/p>\n

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Watch Murillo’s title-defining block against Man City, followed by the WILD Arsenal fans full-time celebrations at the Amex<\/span>
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The number still seems low, albeit not nearly as low as Hurzeler suggested, but it is worth noting it is actually less than two per cent below the Premier League average of 55.3 per cent this season.<\/p>\n

Across the nine Premier League fixtures played on Tuesday and Wednesday, there were two games in which the ball in play time was in fact lower than at the Amex Stadium.<\/p>\n

In Newcastle’s 2-1 win over Manchester United at St James’ Park, the ball in play time stood at 53 seconds and 17 seconds. In Sunderland’s win at Leeds, it was down at just 52 minutes and two seconds.<\/p>\n

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While Hurzeler’s comments implied low ball in play times were unique to Arsenal, the overall Premier League numbers show it is a division-wide issue. According to Opta, the average ball in play time this season is the second-lowest in any campaign since 2006\/07.<\/p>\n

And as shown at the start of this article, Arsenal actually sit above average among Premier League clubs this season, and only slightly below Brighton, suggesting the difference might not be as great as events on the south coast on Wednesday night suggest.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Fabian Hurzeler sensationally accused Arsenal of “making their own rules” and applying time-wasting tactics as they beat Brighton at the Amex Stadium, so were his accusations justified? Bukayo Saka’s ninth-minute … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":533,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-532","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=532"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/532\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/533"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=532"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=532"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ipsport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=532"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}