{"id":368647,"date":"2026-03-05T05:44:07","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:44:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/368647\/"},"modified":"2026-03-05T05:44:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T05:44:07","slug":"only-one-team-tried-to-play-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/368647\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Only one team tried to play football’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has ensured the discourse will be entirely unbearable for the next three to four business days after furiously tearing into Arsenal following their Premier League clash on Wednesday, accusing the Premier League leaders of not trying to play football and insisting he wouldn\u2019t want to win their way.<\/p>\n

Arsenal won a scrappy, bitty game 1-0 thanks to Bukayo Saka\u2019s early goal, which coupled with Manchester City stumbling against Nottingham Forest<\/strong><\/a> has seen the Gunners stretch their lead at the summit to seven points<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n

Key flashpoints in the game included Brighton being denied a penalty late in the first half, and Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya hitting the deck for treatment more than once in the second half.<\/p>\n

But with the Modern Football Is Rubbish discourse \u2013 and Arsenal\u2019s prominent place within it<\/strong><\/a> \u2013 already swirling out of control, Hurzeler\u2019s suggestion that \u2018only one team tried to play football\u2019 and that he would never try to \u2018win in that way\u2019 will keep the news cycle ticking over.<\/p>\n

Speaking after the game, per the Daily Mirror, Hurzeler said: \u201cThere was only one team that tried to play football today. I ask one question \u2013 do you ever see in a Premier League game the goalkeeper going down three times?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe should focus on our performance, we cannot control these types of things. I made my point before the game.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe shouldn\u2019t concentrate on these things\u2026 let\u2019s talk about us. The Premier League needs to look at rules. There were so many [periods of time wasting].\u201d<\/p>\n

Let us all stop and marvel at the sheer futility of that \u201clet\u2019s talk about us\u201d, a moment in which Hurzeler attempts to shut the stable door after he has himself sent the horse bolting into the distance.<\/p>\n

At which point Hurzeler promptly got back upon his bolting hobby horse anyway.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they win the Premier League, no one will ask how they won it. In the end, it is about the rules,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the referee allows everything, at the moment they are doing their own rules. It is difficult to judge that. I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an astonishing rant. It\u2019s a war of words. It\u2019s all you\u2019re going to hear about for a while now, at least until whatever Igor Tudor\u2019s got up his sleeve<\/strong><\/a> if Spurs lose to Crystal Palace tomorrow night.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler has ensured the discourse will be entirely unbearable for the next three to four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":368648,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[76],"tags":[2725,792,18,170831,793,794,19,17,5,132],"class_list":{"0":"post-368647","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-brighton","10":"tag-eire","11":"tag-fabian-hurzeler","12":"tag-front-page","13":"tag-home-page","14":"tag-ie","15":"tag-ireland","16":"tag-news","17":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116174983204482633","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=368647"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/368647\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/368648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=368647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=368647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=368647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}