Under Premier League rules, there is no exact time for teams to restart play after goal kicks and free kicks.
Instead, when play resumes, referees must decide whether players are taking up “excessive” time.
In Sunday’s game, Declan Rice was booked in the 83rd minute for taking more than a minute to take a free kick in City’s half following a foul on Kai Havertz.
Raya was regularly booed by the home crowd in the second half as City fans felt the Spaniard took too long to take goal kicks.
The 29-year-old was cautioned by referee Oliver in the 32nd minute for the long playing time, but he did not receive a booking during the game.
Statistics from Opta show that Arsenal have taken an average of 33.5 seconds to restart play this season – the longest in the Premier League.
This applies to the resumption of all plays after ‘quiet’ situations – goal kicks, corners, free kicks, direct free kicks, throw-ins, penalties, dropped balls and kick-offs.
Only Ligue 1 club Lille and Serie A team Genoa have a higher average restart time than Arsenal in Europe’s five major leagues.
In particular, Arteta’s team took an average of 40 seconds to restart play from a goal kick, longer than any other Premier League club this season.
That’s more than double the time taken by rivals Tottenham, who have resumed play after a goal kick on average 17.4 seconds this season.
