Hello and welcome to the game football podcast from The Times and Sunday Times.

Arsenal's lead at the top of the Premier League table is back to seven points, but their style

and tactics remain firmly in the spotlight.

A 1-0 win thanks to a Baccio-Sacker goal from Open Play,

but Brighton manager Fabian Hertzler says that his team were the only ones trying to play football

and that he wouldn't want to win in the way that Arsenal do.

Does glory and title winning triumph have to be beautiful?

Will Hertzler's comments make more people team Artetta?

On today's show, we'll debate all of that, plus Manchester City's draw with Nottingham Forest. Chelsea turn it on against struggling Aston Villa, West Ham's big win at Fulham and impressive performances from Newcastle, Sunderland and Wolves. I'm Tom Clark, and joining me today. We have the Chief Correspondent for the Times and Sunday Times, Martin Samuel, the former Chelsea Millwall and Ireland striker, Tony Cascarino, and the former footballer turned journalist.

Gregor Robertson is alongside me as usual. We've done it so many times this season already, talked about style and Arsenal.

We have to talk about it again, listeners. It is dominating the headlines this week and none more so than this morning on Thursday as we

record this show after last night's game. Arsenal winning 1-0, as I said in that intro there,

lead at the top of the table, back to seven points after Manchester City's draw.

But Fabian Hertzler making style the big issue again. He said after this game, as Alison Rudd

reports on the Times website, I think there was only one team who tried to play football today. I asked one question, did you see in a Premier League game a goalkeeper going down three times? No, I will never be that kind of manager who tries to win in that way. I want to do well. I want my players to keep improving, to keep playing football on the pitch. And in the end, of course, every team will manage and waste time. But I think there has to be a limit, and the limit has to be set by the Premier League, the limit has to be set by the referees, and at the moment they just do what they want. When asked about this, Mikhail Artetta smiled and said, what a surprise. And adding that he loved his players and he loves the way we compete.

We're going to get into style again, everyone.

Martin, let's start with you.

What did you make of this game and these comments first of all before we broaden it out into the kind of bigger picture stuff?

What do you make of Fabian Hertz's comments about Arsenal?

Well, I think it's very interesting because usually those

sort of comments are what you hear from a manager of an elite team, a team that's at the

top of the league, talking about a lower, a lower opponent, a lesser opponent. It's the sort of thing

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