Fabian Hurzeler vented his frustrations with the way Arsenal went about securing their win over Brighton in midweek, and Gabriel Magalhaes has now responded to the German manager’s outburst.
The Gunners edged past the Seagulls at the Amex, courtesy of an early deflected effort from Bukayo Saka. The result, combined with Manchester City dropping points at home to Nottingham Forest, extends Mikel Arteta’s side’s lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points.
In the aftermath of the clash on the south coast, Hurzeler pounced on the opportunity to join the Arsenal pile-on, accusing the Gunners of deliberately delaying restarts throughout the game.
Gabriel Magalhaes responds to Fabian Hurzeler’s Arsenal accusations
A lot has been made of Arsenal’s dark arts this season. Arteta’s outfit have been accused of all sorts of negative antics, including time-wasting through delaying restarts, faking injury to slow the game down, and grappling inside the penalty area during corners.
Alan Pardew claimed that there is ‘nothing beautiful’ about the way Arsenal go about their business, and the former Premier League manager isn’t the only prominent person to voice these opinions. In an animated post-match interview on Wednesday night, Hurzeler complained about the Gunners’ dubious stunts.
“I think there was only one team who tried to play football today, and therefore I’m proud of how they did it,” Hurzeler said.
“I ask one question, did you see in the Premier League game a goalkeeper going down three times? No? So I think we shouldn’t waste too many words about that tonight. We should focus on us, we should focus on our performance. We can’t control these kinds of things.
“If the Premier League, if the referee allows everything, then it’s difficult, then they make their own rules. At the moment I have the feeling Arsenal are doing their own rules, no matter how they are playing. That’s why I think it’s difficult to judge that.
“Overall, like I said, I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way.”
This outburst was met with subtle contempt from Arteta, and Gabriel has now chimed in on the comments, after being asked about Hurzeler’s words by ESPN Brazil (via the Mirror).
“We don’t really care about what he says,” Gabriel explained.
“That is for the referee to decide on the pitch. If he wants to give a yellow card or not, he decides the time we take. We just have to do things the way we are doing and keep going.”
David Raya releases the ball more quickly than almost every Premier League goalkeeper
While the mainstream perception appears to be that David Raya takes an age to release the ball, the numbers don’t support this notion. Among all 20 first-choice goalkeepers in the Premier League, Raya ranks 18th for time taken to release the ball.
The Spaniard only takes 3.96 seconds on average before distributing it, following a pick-up or claim. In comparison, Manchester United’s Senne Lammens takes 7.68 seconds, longer than anyone else.
Meanwhile, Hurzerler’s number one, Bart Verbruggen, is only slightly behind Lammens at 6.52 seconds.
Raya takes too long on the ball you say? pic.twitter.com/ea4d0wRdgV
— Magic hat 🎩 (@themagic_tophat) March 6, 2026
Clearly, time-wasting through the goalkeeper isn’t something Arsenal partake in more than anyone else. Of course, all teams will use opportunities to run the clock down when holding on to a narrow lead, and Arsenal aren’t an outlier – they do it as much as every other team.
The narratives surrounding the Gunners are simply inaccurate, and Gabriel was right to dismiss Hurzeler’s frustrations, using the young head coach’s comments to fuel an us-against-the-world mentality.
