Arsenal were Tony Pulis biggest critics when he was manager of Stoke City they won only once during six visits to the Britannia Stadium, and frequently bemoaned the Potters tactics.
Pulis deployed a Rory Delap long throw to superb effect during his time at the club, helping his side become incredibly dangerous at set pieces.
Pulis praises Arteta
Fast forward more than a decade and now Arsenal have a more physical side themselves, and currently sit top of the Premier League.
Crucially, theyve done so by emulating Stoke and mastering set pieces now Pulis ball is becoming an increasing trend throughout the league, despite the criticism that the man himself used to get about such tactics.
Oh, I used to get slaughtered! Pulis laughs as he talks to FourFourTwo. Its nice to get some recognition its nice for people to say that Arteta is copying you, instead of me copying them.
I think Arteta has been absolutely brilliant in terms of understanding that its another way to win football matches. Arsenal are now set up stronger than they were last year they can keep clean sheets, which is vital, and theyve got players who can outplay any team in the league on their day.
What hes added is the fact that from dead balls now, they can score goals, so for me, hes connected the circle. Theyve got a wonderful chance of winning the league this year.
Arsene Wenger: not a fan
Unsurprisingly, Pulis does afford himself a wry smile that its Arsenal of all clubs who are leading the table with a style thats being compared to his Stoke side. Back when he was Potters boss, the Gunners hated playing Pulis men.
It was just the fact that we seemed to have it over them, I dont know what it was, it was psychological as much as anything else, Pulis says, speaking in association with legalnibukmacherzy.pl.
Arsene Wenger was bemused by the fact that Rory could throw the ball that well, and bemused that we could cause so much trouble by doing that.
He tried to ban throw-ins, then he complained about the length of the grass on the pitch, then he mentioned that our pitch was the smallest pitch in the league it wasnt, it was the same size as the pitch at Goodison Park.
He found all these reasons to have a little bit of a dig when they came to the Britannia, but it was brilliant if we could have played Arsenal every week, we would have done, because it was so enjoyable. The crowd were always up for it.
There will be more from Pulis in an upcoming issue of FourFourTwo magazine
