Gullit Switches Off After "Garbage" Arsenal-Chelsea Bore; Hurzeler Calls for Time-Wasting Crackdown

Ruud Gullit has thrown in the towel on contemporary football, declaring the sport "absolutely horrible" after witnessing Sunday's Arsenal versus Chelsea encounter—a match where all three goals arrived from set-pieces.

The Netherlands icon's exasperation stems from Arsenal's 2-1 triumph over Chelsea, which keeps Mikel Arteta's side five points clear of Manchester City, who hold a game in hand. With a showdown at the Etihad Stadium looming in April, the Gunners remain firmly in the title hunt despite their bid to break three consecutive runner-up finishes.

Speaking on Ziggo Sport's Rondo show, Gullit pulled no punches: "I have decided to stop watching football. I don't enjoy our sport anymore. I watched Arsenal vs Chelsea, what an absolute garbage match of football! I see players trying to create corner kicks, trying to create throw-ins, I see ball boys ready to give towels to the players. Football has become absolutely horrible."

The frustration cuts deeper than mere aesthetics. Gullit yearns for attacking flair and individual brilliance—the kind of dribbling prowess exemplified by talents like Lamine Yamal. "Where are the players with balls?" he lamented. "Why is everyone passing? Passing! Passing! Passing! I am waiting for players who will take on defenders again. I am missing the joy!"

Arsenal have faced mounting criticism over their reliance on set-pieces and perceived lack of open-play creativity, with many tipping them to "bottle" the Premier League title. That dependency formed the backdrop for Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler's pointed intervention on the matter.

Hurzeler believes the Premier League requires sweeping regulatory reform to combat systematic time-wasting at set-pieces. "It disturbs the rhythm of the game and there are no clear rules any more, how much time you can spend for a corner, how much time you can spend for a throw-in," he told reporters. "Some of the blockings or the way teams are blocking, there is no clear rule. Sometimes the referee whistles and it's a foul, sometimes he doesn't whistle."

The Brighton boss highlighted Arsenal's particularly egregious time management. "When Arsenal have a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over a minute just to take a corner," Hurzeler revealed. "Therefore we just have to make clear rules, because then in the end we have a natural game time of 50 minutes instead of sometimes 65 minutes."

His analysis extends to the broader competitive implications. The variance in actual playing time fundamentally alters the contest: "The game is changing so much if you don't have natural game time for all the games. We analyse it and the difference is just massive."

Hurzeler stressed that supporters deserve consistency. "Every supporter who pays a lot of money to watch our games should see the same natural game time. They want to see a football event, they don't want to see maybe 50 minutes a game and for 40 minutes it's not running."

Whilst acknowledging that set-pieces remain a crucial weapon—and that Brighton themselves must exploit them efficiently—Hurzeler insists clarity is essential. "We won't change these rules immediately, so we know how important set pieces are. I always mention they can be game changer, so we have to use it as well, be very efficient in scoring goals, more efficient in creating chances from corners and free-kicks and always try to defend them well."