‘I made 417 Premier League appearances, this is why there are no blockbuster matches anymore’
It has been a common theme this season in the Premier League; has the quality dropped off or do we look back with rosy-tinted glasses?
After watching what seems a myriad of football matches decided by schoolpark bundles from long throw-ins and corners, it is hard to disagree with the former.
It only seems fitting that the masters of this style are currently leading the Premier League by seven points, with Arsenal’s bully boys scraping their way to victory by any means necessary.
If they pull themselves over the line, will Mikel Arteta’s Gunners be remembered as pulsating champions, like Manchester United’s gallivanting side under Sir Alex Ferguson or Manchester City’s Centurions under Pep Guardiola? Absolutely not. But they will be champions (barring a monumental slip-up…).
Arsenal are wrestling themselves to glory this season in the Premier League
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REUTERS
Speaking exclusively to GB News in association with Spreadex Sports, Danny Murphy explained how no matter the era, football teams will always do what they must to get the three points.
Murphy, who played 417 times in the Premier League for clubs including Liverpool, Fulham, Charlton and Tottenham, said: “This season there has been a focus on the importance of set plays and the long throwing coming back and more pragmatic kickoffs, lots more focus on corners.
Premier League legend Danny Murphy played in conquering Liverpool sides and struggling Charlton teams – he knows a thing or two about differing styles of play
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“That’s something that I personally don’t mind. Because I think it’s another aspect of football.
“What I found over my career, like Big Sam’s Bolton and Tony Pulis’s Stoke, it gave the lesser clubs with so-called lesser players an advantage. I think that is what football is all about.
“It’s finding ways to win and I don’t concur with the narrative now of it being a really negative thing.”
An astonishing 27 per cent of goals this season in the Premier League have come from set-pieces and it has sparked emergency talks between powermakers over changes to the rules.
The Premier League is a globalised product, its images beamed to televisions across the world; there is pressure on the top dogs to ensure that the content is not just 90 minutes of argy-bargy.
Here, Murphy agrees and took aim at the officials, adding: “What we’ve done wrong is we’re not officiating those situations as well as we could be. They’re lasting too long.
Arsenal’s pursuit of Premier League glory has hit a strange, highly debated stumbling block in the court of public opinion: their corner kicks | GETTY
“When corners are lasting as long as they are, because there’s so much going on and refs are intervening and telling players to pack it in.
“It’s making people feel that that’s all they’re watching. Now, if the ref could speed that up, I think that would help massively.
“The other thing that would be the biggest help in this is that, as of now, we have a situation where, when the ball is in the quadrant of the corner, and not in play, the tussling that goes on isn’t punishable.
“We make the rules simple: even when the ball is not in play, any offences are now punishable.”
“I think you’d eradicate so much time from the games and people wouldn’t be focussed so much on the corners because they’d be coming in much quicker.”
One thing is for sure; if Arsenal win the Premier League this season, for the first time in over two decades, they won’t care one jot how they do it.
