Tony Pulis claims he applied ‘same principles’ as Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal | OneFootball

Tony Pulis has suggested he created the blueprint for the Premier League’s current fixation on long throw-ins with his former side Stoke City.

Pulis used the tactic to great effect to prolong Stoke’s stay in the top flight in the late 2000s, long before focusing on dead-ball situations became a key element of the modern game.

Long throws have become so common that the International Football Association Board (Ifab) is considering whether to clamp down on how much time a player can spend on a throw-in in order to increase the amount of time the ball is in play.

The issue was raised at a meeting of Ifab’s football and technical advisory panels on Tuesday. Statistics from Stats Perform indicate that the opening few weeks of this Premier League season featured more than double the amount of long throws compared with the entirety of last season, alongside a significant drop-off in playing time, 133 seconds less than last season.

He wrote: “I was seen as a dinosaur for my focus on dead-ball situations and long-throws with Stoke City when we were promoted to the Premier League in 2008, but I wouldn't say I feel vindicated by the way they are now in fashion - because I knew back then how important they were.

“Attacking set-plays, and also defensive ones, are becoming more prevalent this season, with Mikel Arteta's Arsenal side leading the way, but this is not a new concept.

“In tight games in the Premier League, especially in the first couple of years we were there, they were the difference between us picking up points and dropping them - and staying up or going down - so we worked really hard on them.”

He added that Arteta is now using the same principles, having lost points in several tight draws last season, to try to turn those draws into wins.

Another Premier League manager, Pep Guardiola, was quick to credit Pulis’ Stoke for the throw-in renaissance.

Speaking ahead of Manchester City’s Carabao Cup tie with Swansea on Wednesday, he said: “Do you remember Stoke City when they made the throws? It happened in that time. Now it’s just more and more teams doing that but then maybe Stoke was the exception.”

Pulis added that former Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger used to compare Stoke to a rugby team as a result of their dead-ball routine, but that football fashions change and he has “nothing but respect” for Arteta for adopting elements of the game to bolster their title campaign.

The issue of long throw-ins has proved divisive, with former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher taking to social media to argue against how frequently they are used and how much time they take up in the game.

“For the 100th time I didn’t say I hate set pieces or long throws!!!!” he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). “What I don’t like is every team taking long throws, and the time it’s taking out of the game. I totally get teams doing it who struggle and lack quality of getting the ball in the box, I also like seeing how teams cope with them.

“But teams who have great technical players and have spent millions on them should be getting the ball in play as quick as they can to get these players on the ball.

“I’m no football snob but this is taking the game backwards!”