"Is this man ruining football?" The controversy surrounding Arsenal's "terror ball" has reached a new dimension

Arsenal also became the third team after Bayern Munich (128) and Barcelona (110) to score 100 goals in all competitions this season. They have now gone 13 games without defeat away from home, which is also a first under Arteta. 14 clean sheets after 29 Premier League matchdays means Arsenal have their best defensive record in 20 years.

And yet, the Swiss tabloid Blick recently ran the headline: "Is this man ruining football?" They were referring to Nicolas Jover, Arsenal's set-piece coach.

"There's nothing beautiful about them," said Alan Pardew, who has coached 318 Premier League matches, recently. If Arsenal were to win the title, it would be the "most boring" champion in league history for former international Paul Scholes. For his fellow expert Chris Sutton, it would be the "ugliest". Elsewhere, one reads about the "terror ball" that Arsenal plays.

The controversy surrounding the appropriate aesthetics of playing style, which in Germany also involves Borussia Dortmund coach Niko Kovac, has taken on a new dimension on the island in recent days. According to this view, Arsenal not only play unattractively, but also resort to allegedly unfair means.

"When Arsenal have a corner and are in the lead, they sometimes take over a minute just to take a corner. There are no longer any clear rules about how much time you can take for a corner or a throw-in, because no one recognises it," Brighton's German coach Fabian Hürzeler had already said before last week's clash with the Gunners.

One day and 90 minutes later, with the Seagulls having lost narrowly 1-0, Hürzeler was extremely upset. He complained that "only one team tried to play football" and explained: "It's not easy to get into a rhythm with an opponent who is just trying to waste time. If the referee allows everything, then the players practically make their own rules. At the moment, Arsenal are simply doing what they want. The referees must set the limits."

Opta's data supports Hürzeler's anger in certain respects. Of all Premier League teams, only five took longer on average than Arteta's team (30.2 seconds) to restart play after an interruption (Leeds, Newcastle, Crystal Palace, Brentford and Sunderland).

Arsenal are also the fifth slowest team when it comes to putting the ball back into play after a throw-in (19.6 seconds) and take by far the longest time for corner kicks: at 44.5 seconds, they are 3.2 seconds slower than Sunderland, who are second from bottom in this ranking. Chelsea FC, the "leader" in this category, takes a full 13.6 seconds less than Arsenal to bring the ball back into play after corner kicks.

Against Brighton, Arsenal's 59 delays accounted for just over 30 per cent of the total playing time (30 minutes and 51 seconds). This has only been surpassed ten times this season, and was the highest figure for the Gunners so far. 

On average, it took 31.4 seconds for the Londoners to get the ball back into play after set pieces in last week's match. That in itself is not sensational: in the current Premier League season, there have been 195 instances where a team took longer to do so. Brighton was responsible for three of those instances. Against Manchester City in August, Hürzeler's team took an average of 38.7 seconds.

"What a surprise!" Arteta said when confronted with Hürzeler's comments after the match. "If you look at previous matches, you'll find many comments of this kind. Always. I think they love our players. Every time they talk about our players. They are the most loved in the whole country."

The coach defended himself in a fundamental way. He said that "prettier" goals are celebrated no differently than less pretty ones, which are just "for YouTube" at most. His style is "not ugly," he said, but rather he lets his team play what the opponent offers and what promises success.

It is interesting to note that the IFAB (International Football Association Board), the governing body of football, announced last week that it would be introducing further measures to improve the flow of the game. These include, for example, the introduction of countdowns to speed up goal kicks and throw-ins. However, corner kicks were not mentioned.

The bottom line is simple: Arsenal has developed a strength in set pieces that sets them apart from all other teams. They have already scored 16 goals from corner kicks alone – three more than the second-best team and a record. 

It is difficult to say with any certainty to what extent this figure is due to delays before the kick is taken or whether it is more the result of meticulous work by Arteta's team. A stricter interpretation of the rules could possibly reduce the value, but the fact remains that Arsenal is simply operating within the rules. 

Not so long ago, the Gunners were considered a fragile team for many years, sometimes playing beautifully but failing to win titles. Now, Arsenal's attack is less artistic to watch, but the team is more stable and much harder to rattle. Purists may struggle with this, but after several second-place finishes, Arteta has clearly found a formula that works. If the 22-year title drought comes to an end soon, he and his team will have done everything right.