Is Arsenal’s ‘bad guys’ tonight victorious in the English Premier League?

Arsenal They are now firmly portrayed as the villains in the Premier League title race – but tonight is a heated one Brighton It may be what makes them victorious in the end.

In all likelihood, the Gunners will end up as unpopular and unpopular champions, with their uncompromising style coming under increasing scrutiny.

More came their way after a controversial match decided by Bukayo Saka with an early goal, a goal that extended Arsenal’s lead at the top of the table to seven points to create a potentially decisive advantage.

Will Arsenal and manager Mikel Arteta care if the means justify the end of a 22-year wait to win the Premier League? Unlikely.

Arteta’s side have been criticized for what outside observers see as an employment of the dark arts and an over-reliance on set-piece experience to maintain their position at the top of the table.

The 1-0 win at the Amex Stadium was the very definition of ugly. In fact, calling him “ugly” is an insult to ugly.

When the half-time whistle arrived, the xG value was just 0.01 and the second half was hardly any better considering it took until the 88th minute for Kai Havertz to get his second effort on target. The final result was the tenth time this season that they had won by a single goal.

It certainly wasn’t pleasing to the eyes of Brighton manager Fabian Horzler, who spent almost the entire match fuming at Arsenal’s strategy and what happened in front of him.

However, while Arsenal fans reacted happily after the final whistle of this win and also when Manchester City failed to beat Nottingham Forest, this beast of a victory may yet turn out to be beautiful.

With Arsenal celebrating and City falling behind, it felt like this could be the decisive night in this tense battle towards the Premier League finish line.

This is not a popularity contest. It’s a title competition that Arsenal are currently winning.

Horzler, who had pointed out what he clearly saw as a waste of Arsenal’s time before the match, was unchanged in his opinion by what he saw.

“I think there was only one team that tried to play football today, so I’m proud of the way they did it,” Horzler said.

Horzler added: “I will never be the kind of coach who tries to win like that. I want to do well. I want my players to keep improving, to keep playing football on the field.”

“In the end, of course, every team will manage and waste time, but I think there must be a limit, and the Premier League must set the limit. The limit must be set by the referees, at the moment they are just doing what they want.”

The Brighton coach continued: “If I were to ask everyone in the room now whether they really enjoyed this football match, I’m sure someone would probably raise their arm because they’re a big Arsenal fan but besides that, there’s no chance.”

Arteta defended his corner, welcoming Horzler’s criticism with “what a surprise” before saying: “Just go back to previous matches and you will always find a lot of comments like this.”

“I love my players. That’s the highlight of it. I love my players, we love our players, and I love the way we compete.”

Regarding external criticism, Arteta responded: “I think they love our players. I mean, every time they talk about our players, I think they are the most beloved people in the country.”

“We take care of our garden,” he added.