Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal ranks the highest this season in terms of time wastage in the Premier League, a report by talkSPORT revealed on Tuesday.
Arsenal recently faced Manchester City in a game that saw the Gunners fail to hold on to a 2-1 lead they got in the first half as they eventually conceded a goal in the final minute of added time through John Stones to settle for a draw at the Etihad Stadium on Sunday.
The Gunners were reduced to ten men and with City having the numerical advantage for half of the game, they resulted in bolstering their rearguard, bringing on Ben White for Bukayo Saka, with the hopes of holding on to their lead. This defensive shift in the second half saw most of the Arsenal players behind the ball and the entire team not being able to create a single attempt.
Arteta’s men deployed various means of time wasting to try to hold on to the lead, slowing down the game through cheeky fouls and other tactics.
The report confirmed the Gunners as the team that has wasted the most time so far this season from kickoffs, throw ins and corner-kicks as they currently average 31.8 seconds wasting time.
In close second is Leicester City with 31.7s and the rest of the list sees Brentford (31.2s), Wolves (30.8s) and Aston Villa (30.4s) respectively in the top five of time wasters.
Everton are number six (30.3s), Chelsea are in seventh (29.3s), Brighton are eight (29.2s), Newcastle United are ninth in 29s and newcomers Ipswich Town complete the top 10 (28.7s).
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The bottom five, however, consists of City with only 25.4s average, Crystal Palace with 24.4s, Tottenham Hotspur with 24.2s, Liverpool with 24.1s and West Ham United with 23.9s being the club that wastes time the least in their matches.
