Glenn Whelan couldn't help but laugh as he watched Arsenal turn to long-throws in a bid to reach the Champions League final.
Whelan was one of the key men in a Stoke City team that really got on then-Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger's nerves a few years ago, partly due to Rory Delap's superlative throws. It got to the point when Wenger even wrote to the FA, complaining that the tactic wasn't fair.
He added: "The rule I would change would be maybe to play throw-ins by foot. Why not? At Stoke, for Rory Delap it is like kicking the ball. It is a little bit of an unfair advantage. He is using a strength that is usually not a strength in football."
Wenger stepped up his war on throw-ins in retirement by lobbying football's lawmakers yet his successor at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta has embraced some of Tony Pulis's old ploys - and Thomas Partey was chucking it as far as he could when they were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain last night.
Whelan wrote on social media with a couple of laughing emojis: "10 mins gone and Partey has sent 4 long throws into the box.. I would love to get a few words from Mr Wenger and get his reaction on how Arteta has reinvented the wheel."
Wenger has been on Champions League pundit duty this week but didn't appear to see the incident.
Arteta has got Arsenal to compete for trophies again by being willing to use set pieces - and took it as a compliment when pundit Dimitar Berbatov compared his side to Whelan's Stoke.
He said earlier this season: "We want to be the kings of everything. On set-pieces, the best in the world. High press, the best in the world. Attacking open spaces, the best in the world. We want to have the best atmosphere in the stadium and be the best at everything.
“I understood very well what Berbatov said, and it was said in the best possible way. We take it as a big compliment, and as a fuel to be better.”
Pulis found a way to beat the odds when he had guided Stoke to promotion to the Premier League. His approach led to the development of xG as baffled rivals tasked data scientists to figure out how they were winning games without having a ruck of shots or dominating possession.
Set plays were particularly important - 81 out of the 188 in total that Stoke scored in the top flight under Pulis between 2008 and 2013 came from set pieces excluding penalties, a whopping 43.1 per cent, and they helped the Potters stay up and establish themselves back in the big time.
So he is not surprised that Arsenal eventually caught up once Wenger was tending his garden in retirement.
"They get it now," Pulis said recently. "What I would say, and I want to make this clear, is that I think for corners - and we were very, very good at set plays at Stoke - but for corners, it was one season at West Brom when we scored the highest number of goals (from corners). All the teams I've been at, most have been good at set plays, which is such an important part of the game, as Arsenal are showing, and I think it's coming more into fashion now with people having set play coaches up and down the country.
"It's taken them a while to work it out but it looks as though the penny has dropped."
Wenger actually pointed to PSG's set-piece prowess when he ran the rule over Arsenal's Champions League exit.
He said: "I would say tonight that we've seen a different Paris Saint-Germain - not guided by possession and brilliant football, but guided by refusing to concede goals and taking advantage on the counter-attack and on set pieces is what gave them success tonight. I would say that mentally they were strong as well. When they missed a penalty, they did hang in there.
"On the other hand, with Arsenal, we saw the recurrence of being unable to score goals... Overall, in the two games, I would say they were better than Arsenal, had more chances and were never really in danger."
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