‘What a surprise’: PL feud erupts over sledge, ugly slanging match; ‘crap’ Utd scolded — Talking Pts

The title race was shaken-up in a dramatic midweek match week, but questions marks hang over both Arsenal and Manchester City.

The Gunners now hold a seven-point lead at the top of table despite criticism of their ugly style of play rearing its head again.

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Mikel Arteta’s side will not care though if they keep racking up victories, however.

Meanwhile, City claim that they are the victims of a vendetta as a crucial call went against them in a surprise 2-2 draw at home to Nottingham Forest.

Manchester United’s honeymoon period under interim boss Michael Carrick is officially over with the Red Devils suffering their first loss under their former captain.

One of Carrick’s teammates took to social media with some eyebrow raising comments about his prospects of securing the gig permanently.

While at the bottom end of the table, a relegation scrap is well and truly on as West Ham took another big step towards a stunning escape.

Here are the biggest talking points from the English Premier League!

BRIGHTON BOSS BLASTS GUNNERS

Brighton manager Fabian Hurzeler invoked the spirit of former Australian cricket captain Bill Woodfull after the Seagulls’ 1-0 loss at home to Arsenal on Thursday morning.

During the infamous Bodyline Ashes series of 1932/33, Woodfull uttered words that went down in Australian sporting folklore after being struck above the heart by a delivery from Harold Larwood in Adelaide.

“There are two sides out there today and only one of them is playing cricket,” Woodfull said of his English foes.

Hurzeler shared the same accusation for Arsenal.

The Gunners have been ridiculed all season long for their strength once the ball goes dead.

They have been called ‘Set Piece FC’.

At times they have resembled old version of the video game FIFA when corners were near on undefendable.

Arsenal’s swarming of the penalty area has not made for pretty football.

And Hurzeler was clearly fed up with the tactics, despite Bukayo Saka’s match-winning goal coming from open play.

The German also took aim at their time-wasting efforts.

“We could have even created more chances, but overall, like you said, in the end we lost, so we are all disappointed regarding the performance,” he said.

“I love the effort from my boys, I loved how they played football. I think there was only one team who tried to play football today and therefore I’m proud of how they did it.

“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 kind of things.

“I think therefore the Premier League has to find the rule and it’s not my business. I made my point before the game and I stick to it.”

In response, Arteta was asked about the accusation, initially only responding by saying: “What a surprise.”

The Spaniard was then asked to elaborate, he replied: “You just go back to the previous games and you’ll find a lot of comments like this always.

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

Arteta was then questioned as to whether he cares about the comments made by other managers.

“Care? Yeah. Depends,” he said.

Arteta added: “Yeah (depends on the manager), and the comments. And the purpose of that.

“Obviously, when you are in the position that we are in, they want to take that away from you. That’s normal, that’s sport.

“We need to take that with normality and we need to confront it in the right way.”

Regardless of the verbal slanging match, just like Douglas Jardine’s England team, the ends will justify the means.

England won 4-1 on the Bodyline tour of Australia, and if Arsenal claim their first title in more than two decades, their fans will have no qualms about how the trophy was won.

Former England goalkeeper Rob Green said that Arsenal should be the ones being questioned right now as their rivals are not putting enough pressure on.

“Arsenal can keep playing badly and winning all they like - it’s the others that are faltering,” Green said on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“Manchester City are faltering and you just look at this Arsenal side and how they go about winning games, they manage to just grind out results and that’s all they’ve done tonight. They don’t care, they won.”

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‘HAVE BEEN CRAP’: UTD GREAT’S DIG

Michael Carrick’s unbeaten run is over and it came in disappointing fashion as Manchester United conceded a late winner to a ten-man Newcastle at St James’ Park.

There has been much talk around whether Carrick should be handed the job on a permanent basis.

With every win, United won six of seven matches before the loss to the Magpies, the calls for a contract for Carrick grew louder.

The club has the time to search for its next full-time manager, but many have thought the answer was right under their noses.

Former Manchester United captain Gary Neville said recently that he was not opposed to Carrick being given the job.

But one of their fellow champion ex-teammates clearly believes United need to be looking elsewhere.

Paul Scholes posted on his Instagram story this morning: “Michael has definitely got something special about him...because Man Utd have been crap the last four games.”

While Scholes also showed his appreciation for Sandro Tonali, the Newcastle and Italy midfielder who he has said is the best in the Premier League, writing his name with a love heart emoji.

The loss also prevented United from gaining more ground in the race for the Champions League places.

The remain third on the table, but had the chance to further their advantage with Aston Villa being belted 4-1 by Chelsea and Liverpool suffering a shock loss to last-placed Wolves.

“We’re not happy with the way we played tonight. We had it in our hands largely but credit to Newcastle,” Carrick told TNT Sports.

“The way they approached the game, we knew it would be a tough game. We navigated the game in a way that we felt we could kick on but we didn’t really. Bitterly disappointed.

“I don’t think it was the 10 men, I just don’t think we played good enough tonight. We can’t make any excuses for that. We all take responsibility for that and we know.

“Why was the character lacking? It wasn’t. It was just the quality and the performance. Not the character. We wanted to win. It’s easy to throw that out when you don’t win a game of football.

“We weren’t there in terms of quality. Credit to Newcastle. They deserved to win tonight. It hurts me to say that but that’s how it was. We need to get back to working and be better for the next game.

“We’ve lost one game, we haven’t played well enough but in the grand scheme of things but we are in a good position.”

WERE CITY ROBBED?

In the sky blue half of Manchester, supporters were up in arms at the Etihad as Erling Haaland was denied a penalty in City’s 2-2 draw with Nottingham Forest.

The hosts were leading 2-1 when Haaland appeared to be clipped by Forest goalkeeper Matz Sels.

A brief VAR review took place but the referee’s decision of no penalty was up held.

Making matters worse for City, Elliot Anderson equalised shortly after and dropping two points extended Arsenal lead in the title race to seven.

Haaland also had a small penalty shout before half-time, while Rodri was also brought down at one stage.

Bernardo Silva was seething post-match, saying it feels like the rub of the green has always gone against City this season.

“We’re quite used to it this season,” the midfielder told TNT Sports. “All the 50-50s have gone against us. It’s the reality. I’ve just watched the Erling incident. For me, it’s a penalty.

“Some people might argue a different opinion. What can Erling do? We’re used to it this season. We know how it works. Our job is just to be better, because we cannot control these things.

“What we can control is our own performances, and that is what we need to focus on.”

Pep Guardiola ranted about the referees earlier in the season after a win against Wolves.

The manager caused offence for a new referee by saying he tried to make a name for himself by become the first referee to disagree with the VAR’s recommendation to overturn a decision.

But this time, Guardiola was staying more cautious with his words.

“I would like to concede fewer but it’s not about analysing one specific action,” said Guardiola. “I never point fingers at my players. We did everything.

“We had the chances at the end and in the first half and the momentum. But something always happens and we could not win.”

He added when asked about the non-penalty incident: “I spoke weeks ago about that subject.

“I always believe that we have to do it much better so the officials don’t intervene. It’s our responsibility to do it better, we don’t have to rely on them.

“Nothing more to say, I said it in the past.”

CAN HAMMERS BEAT THE DROP?

West Ham’s surprise 1-0 win at Fulham has sure made things interesting at the foot of the table.

The Hammers are only one point away from safety with Tottenham still to play against Crystal Palace on Friday morning.

West Ham looked gone at the start of the New Year, but have fought back impressively and with 14 points in their eight games, they have developed a new found belief in their rescue mission.

“Of course. [I have] full confidence in every person,” Jaren Bowen told TNT Sports at Craven Cottage when asked if they can avoid relegation.

“As you can imagine, we knew how important three points were.

“You don’t want to rely on other results. We have to focus on ourselves, we’re in this situation and we are the ones who can get ourselves out of it.

“Coming here tonight, we knew it would be difficult. They are a really good side. We had to do a proper away performance and we did that.”

Survival would also be a significant result for manager Nuno Espirito Santo.

He was sacked by Nottingham Forest three games into this season and then took on the Hammers job after Graham Potter’s dismissal.

“Special night. A tough place to come,” Nuno said.

“We don’t measure belief. We always had belief, hope. Today was a big day for us. The situation hasn’t changed. Nothing has changed. We require a lot more.”

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