‘Arsenal are trying to CHEAT their way to the Premier League’: John Obi Mikel launches explosive rant on ‘illegal’ Gunners tactics – and insists they reek of desperation after £1bn spend

Arsenal are ‘desperate cheats’ who play ‘illegal’ football and would not be valid Premier League champions, John Obi Mikel has claimed in an astonishing attack.

He insists Mikel Arteta has stifled their best talent, that fans would be in uproar at their playing style if they weren’t top of the table, and that he would refuse to join in with their tactics if he played for them. 

Mikel, who won two Premier League titles with Chelsea, added that Arsenal are ‘ridiculous’ and ‘ugly’ and ‘play horribly’ in a fiery harangue on talkSPORT.  

Arsenal have scored 21 goals from set-pieces in the league this season, more than any other team. According to their website, 35 of their 100 goals in all competitions have come from open play.

Mikel said: ‘When I watch Arsenal play right now, they depend solely, 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… they win it ugly.

‘The only reason why the Arsenal fans are not complaining with the style of football that they’re playing is because they’re top of the league. If they’re not top of the league, they will complain that they’re not enjoying the type of football that they’re playing. You look at the corner kicks, all them players.

‘It’s illegal… The creativity that they have, the potentials that they have, it’s all gone out of the window. We don’t see them anymore. The likes of Saka, the likes of Martinelli, the likes of Eze, Odegaard. We don’t see that anymore because they depend solely on corner kicks.

‘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. You can’t do that. First of all, they’re impeding the goalkeeper and now they start holding players.

‘When you hold a play, when you impede a player from jumping, I watched the game against Chelsea when they played against us. 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. And for me, yeah, and for me, how can the referee not see that? 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. 

‘And for me, that’s illegal. So that is what I mean, that Arsenal are trying to cheat their way to winning the Premier League. They’re trying to cheat their way to winning the Premier League.’

Arsenal are not the only team to be scrutinised for their physicality from set-pieces and it has become a league-wide issue.

Everton were criticised for loading players onto Manchester United goalkeeper Senne Lammens from corner kicks last month. 

Liverpool boss Arne Slot claims that most matches are now not a ‘joy to watch’. West Ham manager Nuno Espirito Santo has called the set-piece situation ‘absolutely crazy’ and called for a review.

The Premier League has seen a higher proportion of set-piece goals than any other top-five league in Europe this season, beating all by several percentage points.

But Mikel continued focusing his rant against Arsenal, saying: ‘It’s week in, week out. You look at Gabriel, you look at Saliba, you look at Declan Rice, they are physically manhandling players, they’re holding players. You can’t do that. That is penalty. It doesn’t matter how much you look at it. The VAR can see that.

The Gunners have been scrutinised for their physical style of play this campaign 

‘That’s a team that is desperate of winning the Premier League, because they know that they haven’t won the Premier League for the last 22 years, 23 years. 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. Then for me, week in, week out, when I see them do that, and the type of football that they’re playing as well, I’ve said it here. It’s not fun to watch, it’s so rigid. There’s no creativity.

‘For the past five, six weeks, we’ve seen Arsenal play horribly, and they’re winning.’

Arsenal are seven points ahead of Manchester City, having played a game more, and have eight matches left.

If they do lift the title, it would vindicate Arteta’s deployment of the ‘dark arts’ after years of Arsenal being accused of being too nice. 

But asked if he would recognise Arsenal as Premier League champions, Mikel replied: ‘Not if they’re going and winning the way they’re playing right now. No, I wouldn’t. Because for me, it’s a cheat. They’ve cheated their way to winning the Premier League. 

‘So I wouldn’t recognize them as winners. Because for me, it’s illegal the way they’re winning games. It’s illegal. Unless the Premier League right now, from this weekend, stamp that out. We don’t want to see that in the game.’

Would he play how Arteta asked him to if he was on his team? ‘No, you can’t, because he spent a billion.’