Former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has launched a surprising and fierce criticism of Arsenal’s style of play. The Nigerian football legend accused the club of relying on what he described as “illegal” tactics in their push to win the Premier League title.
Speaking during a punditry appearance, Mikel claimed the North London club has become overly dependent on set-pieces, particularly corner kicks. According to him, the team’s approach raises serious concerns about fairness and sportsmanship.
The former Super Eagles captain did not hold back while discussing Arsenal’s recent performances. He argued that the team has abandoned creativity despite spending heavily on players.
“When I watch Arsenal play right now, they depend solely, solely on corner kicks,” Mikel said.
“You have spent almost a billion, Mikel Arteta, almost a billion. And you’re telling me the only way you can win games is through corner kicks? It’s ridiculous… they win it ugly.”
However, statistics show that Arsenal have been extremely effective from set-pieces this season. The club has scored 21 goals from set-pieces in the Premier League. That is more than any other team.
Moreover, their official figures indicate that 35 of their 100 goals in all competitions have come from open play. Despite those numbers, Mikel believes Arsenal’s methods during corners go beyond normal football tactics.
He claimed players are frequently obstructing goalkeepers and holding opponents during set-pieces.
“What is illegal about it? It’s for me, every time I watch them doing the corner kicks, doing set pieces, what they do during set-pieces, for me, it’s illegal,” he said.
“You can’t do that. First of all, they’re impeding the goalkeeper and now they start holding players.”
Furthermore, he pointed to a specific incident during Arsenal’s match against Chelsea. Mikel claimed that Declan Rice held an opponent during a corner kick.
“When you hold a play, when you impede a player from jumping, I watched the game against Chelsea when they played against us,” he explained.
“Declan Rice was grabbing, I don’t know who’s, the left back, what’s his name (Jorrel Hato)? He was holding him so he couldn’t jump.”
Mikel also questioned why referees and VAR officials have not punished the alleged behaviour. He argued that football authorities should intervene quickly before other teams copy the tactic.
“And for me, how can the referee not see that?” he asked.
“Even if the ball goes in, how can the VAR not see that?”
“And for me, the PGMOL, well, they need to come out and they need to straight away, they need to stop this because if they don’t stop this, the whole bunch of teams are gonna start doing it.”
Meanwhile, Mikel suggested Arsenal’s desperation to win the league could be influencing their approach. The club has not won the Premier League title for more than two decades. According to him, that long wait may be pushing the team to take extreme measures.
“That’s a team that is desperate of winning the Premier League,” he said.
“And now they’re so desperate, they want to cheat their way through it.”
“They want to take the ball and say, you know what, yeah, we finally won it.”
“Win it the right way, play the game the right way, and win the game the right way, which is legally.”
Despite the criticism, Arsenal remain in a strong position in the Premier League title race. The Gunners currently sit seven points ahead of Manchester City. However, they have played one match more than their closest rivals.
Meanwhile, eight matches remain before the season concludes. Therefore, the race for the title is still far from decided.
Truly, their style of playing is boring and annoying but every team has its own technique. Getafe CF, for instance, are terrorists on the field