Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have the chance to achieve the unthinkable this season as winning the quadruple is still on the line but former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has claimed they are ‘cheating’ to a Premier League title.
As things stand, the Gunners are sat at the top of England’s top flight with 67 points after 30 matches.
Manchester City are currently seven points behind the league leaders but the eight-time winners of the Premier League do have a game in hand.
| Position | Team | Matches | W/D/L | Points |
| 1. | Arsenal | 30 | 20/7/3 | 67 |
| 2. | Man City | 29 | 18/6/5 | 60 |
They are also still in with a chance of winning the Champions League for the first time in their history after drawing 1-1 with Bayer Leverkusen in the first leg of their Champions League Round of 16 encounter.
Despite all of their success up to this point (although it hasn’t resulted in silverware as yet), Obi Mikel is still of the opinion that they are not up to scratch.
John Obi Mikel labels Arsenal ‘cheats’ in Premier League title race
Much has been made of Arsenal’s season, hasn’t it? Many have claimed they lack the attacking prowess to be considered worthy winners of English football’s most prestigious honour.
Others, however, believe they have adapted well to the current iteration of the Premier League – which is less about individual brilliance and more about finding a way to put three points on the board.
Speaking to talkSPORT, he said: “When I watch Arsenal play, they depend solely on corners. You have spent almost a billion, Mikel Arteta, and you’re telling me the only way you can win games is through corner kicks? It’s ridiculous.”
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The Nigerian, who won ten of his 17 matches against the north Londoners, then claimed that Arsenal fans are glossing over that fact because they’re at the summit of the Premier League.
“The only reason Arsenal fans are not complaining about the style of football is because they’re top of the league,” the midfielder-turned-pundit continued.
The 4 stars stifled by Arteta’s tactics, according to Obi Mikel
Following their draw against Leverkusen on Wednesday night, ReadArsenal listed the club’s attacking impotence as a thing that needs to be ironed out moving forward.
Obi Mikel agreed with such a sentiment and named four players who are currently stagnating under Arteta’s guidance.
“The creativity they have, the potential they have — it’s all gone out of the window. We don’t see the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard anymore because they depend solely on corners,” he said.
“If they win playing like this, I wouldn’t recognise them as winners. For me it’s a cheat. They’ve cheated their way to winning the Premier League. It’s illegal the way they’re winning games and the Premier League should stamp it out because we don’t want to see it.
“You can’t play like this when you’ve spent a billion, there’s so much creativity in the squad – Eze, Odegaard, Saka – let them express themselves. They are so rigid and dependent on corner kicks,” he concluded.
