I agree. Newcastle were doing everything they could in order to stop the flow of the game. I had no idea Eddie Howe would stoop to that level, but maybe it was just a one off? New season and all that.
But Arteta has no excuse for his utterly appalling shenanigans. He's been at Arsenal longer that Howe has been at Newcastle, and he was tutored by Pep, so why the constant negativity?
In all the years I've been watching football I have never seen so much blatant time-wasting going on by a professional club. You could see it was a deliberate tactic from him.
An ex-bandmate of mine is a season ticket holder, and he said he was ashamed of their behaviour ("taking it to a new dimension" were his precise words regarding Arsenal's ludicrous time-wasting).
You like to think that sporting officials in this country would clamp down on this sort of behaviour, but then you remember this is the Premier league and pgmol we're talking about.