The Art of Time: Arsenal’s Stopwatch Dilemma
In the ever-evolving football landscape, Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal found themselves embroiled in a stopwatch scandal, echoing the sentiments of many regarding the pace of the modern game.
A Ticking Issue for Tomiyasu
“When we might have to play with a stop watch,” remarked a somewhat bemused Arteta, referencing Takehiro Tomiyasu’s rather elaborate eight-second throw-in that landed him a contentious red card. As Arsenal savoured a slender 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace, courtesy of Martin Odegaard’s penalty precision, the discussion was dominated by the Gunners’ first sending off since the 2021-22 season.
Football’s governing body has urged referees to intensify their scrutiny on time-wasting and dissent. With a whopping 32 yellow cards doled out in merely over 5% of the season, a simple extrapolation predicts a staggering 608 by season end, dwarfing the previous campaign’s total of 174.
Arteta’s Stopwatch Solution
“These are the [new] standards,” an animated Arteta shared with BBC Sport. Corrected on the exact duration Tomiyasu took for his throw-in, the Arsenal boss interjected, “No, it wasn’t. I think it was eight seconds. We might have to play with a stop watch. It’s OK, we won the game, I’m happy.”
He continued, “The new rules are one thing, the way it is communicated is very different but we will adapt.”
Sky Sports pundit and former Manchester United mainstay, Gary Neville, chimed in with a poignant observation: “If players start getting sent off for wasting time – this will have a bigger impact tonight on time wasting, than adding 15 minutes on at the end.” A nod, of course, to the season’s other significant alteration: a more liberal addition of injury time to compensate for stoppages.
Liverpool legend Jamie Carragher sympathised with the Japanese defender: “I feel sorry for Tomiyasu. The role of Partey at the start, then Havertz. I don’t think Tomiyasu is wasting time, he ran to pick the ball up.”
Crystal Clarity from Palace
Crystal Palace’s gaffer, Roy Hodgson, shared his two pennies: “These rules and ideas are thrust upon us, we don’t have too much say, we have to learn to live with them. I can understand how Arsenal would be unhappy about the two yellow cards, I am sure I would be too.”
Noting the effectiveness of the stricter regulations, Hodgson said, “It is working in terms of getting players sent off but whether that is the right thing, I will leave referees to decide themselves.”
Arsenal’s Declan Rice added his perspective, “At the start we had a referees’ meeting explain the new rules. We know if we time waste we will get a yellow card, but the added time can be frustrating at times at the end.”
Adaptation in the New Premier Era
But the Gunners weren’t the only ones grappling with the refreshed rulebook. Fulham’s Marco Silva found himself yellow-carded for dissent following a particularly debatable penalty that saw Tim Ream receive marching orders.
“It’s the new Premier League, we have to get used to it,” Silva mused post-match. “The Premier League is totally different now to last season or the season before or the last 20 years. We have to adapt. It’s difficult to understand.”
As football’s pendulum swings between tradition and modernisation, only time will reveal if the stopwatch is the solution or another fleeting fancy.
