Arsenal shatter irony-meter with latest stat after blasting Newcastle United for 'dark arts'
It wasn't too long ago that the words 'Newcastle United' and 'dark arts' were uttered by every pundit and commentator on TV after the Magpies slowed the game down to eke a win against Arsenal.
Sure, it wasn't pretty, but Newcastle employed every trick in the book to reduce the amount of time the ball was in play in order to secure the win against Arsenal.
This was a couple of season ago and it created such a furore that there became a movement to try and hinder Newcastle from doing anything that could be deemed gamesmanship, even going as far as to try and ban there being more than one staff member inside the technical area at any one time to prevent Eddie Howe and Jason Tindall consorting too much throughout the game.
Thankfully, that rule died off pretty quickly, but suddenly other teams started to employ the same tactics Newcastle were lambasted for.
Arsenal saw what Newcastle did and perfected it
Ironically, the team that seems to have mastered these little tactics is none other than Arsenal, who, in their game against Brighton this week, took an average of 31.4 seconds to return the ball to play from a dead ball situation.
That resulted in a total of 30 minutes and 51 seconds of the ball being dead when in Arsenal's possession.
The very club that hit the roof when we did it is now employing those very same tactics to far greater effect.
Arsenal will have to find new ways to game the system next season
It's little wonder that the new rules coming into effect next season are directly aimed at reducing time-wasting tactics.
Obviously, as fans of the game, we're all in favour of rules that mean the game moves quicker, and we see more action. Of all the new rules coming into effect next season, the ones aimed at speeding up dead-ball situations are the welcome ones.
We just couldn't help but point out the shocking levels of irony in how the tables have turned.
