Mikel Obi: Arsenal ‘Cheating’ with Set-Piece Tactics

Mikel Obi has launched a scathing attack on Arsenal’s style of play, accusing Mikel Arteta’s side of ‘cheating’ their way towards the Premier League title.

With the Gunners seven points clear at the top as they chase a first crown in 22 years, Obi dismissed comparisons between Arsenal and José Mourinho’s Chelsea, insisting the Blues ‘won legally’ when they famously parked the bus.

‘We used to park the bus, yes, but we won legally,’ Obi told talkSPORT.

‘When I watch Arsenal play right now, they depend solely on corner kicks. 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.’

The former Chelsea midfielder, who lifted two league titles under Mourinho, went further by branding Arsenal’s set-piece routines ‘illegal.’

‘For me, every time I watch them during the corner kicks, during set pieces, what they do during set pieces, for me, it’s illegal. You can’t do that. First of all, they’re impeding the goalkeeper and now they start holding players.

‘When you hold a player, when you impede a player jumping… I watched the game against Chelsea when they played against us. Declan Rice was grabbing the left-back, he was holding him so he couldn’t jump. How can the referee not see that? Even if the ball goes in, how can VAR not see that?’

Obi called on the PGMOL to intervene.

‘They need to come out and they need to straight away stop this because if they don’t stop this, a whole bunch of teams are going to start doing it. And for me, it’s illegal. So that is what I mean, that Arsenal are trying to cheat their way to winning the Premier League.’