Forget Arsenal's 'Dark Arts' - there's one major issue Premier League must quickly address

Arsenal have been given a lot of coverage in the past week over their tactics and manner of how they defended a lead against Manchester City - but one key issue really does need to be addressed

There is a place in football for the so-called ‘Dark Arts’ - because doing whatever you need to do to win a game is what being a professional is all about.

So while I didn’t really get onboard with the widespread criticism of 10-man Arsenal in their bid to survive a second-half siege at Manchester City last week, there was one issue that really does need to be addressed.

Time-wasting is a blight on the game. I’m not talking about taking a few extra seconds over goal-kicks and throw-ins. It’s the sight of players biting the dust with injury to break up the game and allow the manager to summon the rest of the team over to the touchline for further tactical instruction that really winds me up.

For Michael Oliver to only add seven minutes of injury-time at the Etihad meant Mikel Arteta’s gamesmanship was rewarded with a point.

I don’t blame the Arsenal manager for doing what was necessary. But match officials have to make sure that the time that gets wasted is added on in full after the 90 minutes are up. Perhaps referees and their assistants get so caught up in the game that they don’t realise how much time they allow to tick down.

Maybe it’s time for football to follow the lead of rugby by having a separate time-keeper who stops the clock every time it becomes clear that players are going beyond the limits of what is normal.

We saw at the last World Cup how much time is actually being wasted when referees started adding 10 minutes or more on at the end of games. That policy was adopted in Saudi Arabia when I had a spell coaching over there - and the number of goals that were scored during injury-time was a real eye-opener.

Michael Oliver didn’t let Leandro Trossard get away with wasting a few seconds when the Belgian was sent off after picking up a second yellow card for kicking the ball away. Yet he did enable a mass outbreak of cramp in the Arsenal team by failing to add on anywhere near the amount of time that was lost.

The solution seems clear enough to me.

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