Mikel Arteta has been slammed for his “illegal” Arsenal methods after “spending almost a billion” and four Gunners stars have been picked out as suffering as they “cheat” their way to the Premier League title.

Arteta and Arsenal have been roundly criticised in recent weeks for their functional football as they hold a seven-point lead at the top of the Premier League title and remain on course for the quadruple.

Fabian Hurzeler hit out at the Gunners’ anti-football after Brighton’s defeatand former Newcastle boss Alan Pardew has suggested a title win should “come with an asterisk”as he took issue with the brand of football Arteta has adopted.

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And former Chelsea midfielder John Obi Mikel has rejected comparisons with the Blues team he played in under Jose Mourinho, insisting they never used “illegal” means to win games of football before picking out four Arsenal stars whose creativity has been stunted by Arteta’s approach.

He said on talkSPORT: “We used to park the bus, yes, but we won legally.

“When I watch Arsenal play right now, they depend solely on corner kicks.

“You have spent almost a billion, Mikel Arteta, almost a billion. And you’re telling me the only way you can win games is through corner kicks? It’s ridiculous.”

“The only reason Arsenal fans are not complaining about the style of football is because they’re top of the league.

“The creativity they have, the potential they have — it’s all gone out of the window. We don’t see the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Martinelli, Eberechi Eze, Martin Odegaard anymore because they depend solely on corners.

“If they win playing like this, I wouldn’t recognise them as winners. For me it’s a cheat. They’ve cheated their way to winning the Premier League.

“It’s illegal the way they’re winning games and the Premier League should stamp it out because we don’t want to see it.

“You can’t play like this when you’ve spent a billion, there’s so much creativity in the squad – Eze, Odegaard, Saka – let them express themselves. They are so rigid and dependent on corner kicks.”

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Asked to expand on what he meant by Arsenal’s “illegal” tactics, Mikel added: “For me, everytime I watch them during the corner kicks, during set pieces, what they do during set pieces, for me, it’s illegal. You can’t do that.

“First of all, they’re impeding the goalkeeper and now they start holding players. When you hold a player, when you impede a player jumping.

“I watched the game against Chelsea when they played against us. Declan Rice was grabbing the left-back, he was holding him so he couldn’t jump.

“How can the referee not see that? Even if the ball goes in, how can VAR not see that? And for me, the PGMOL, they need to come out and they need to straight away stop this because if they don’t stop this, a whole bunch of teams are going to start doing it. And for me, it’s illegal.

“So that is what I mean, that Arsenal are trying to cheat their way to winning the Premier League.”