Muscat, Arnold clash on playing styles

Melbourne Victory coach Kevin Muscat and Sydney FC boss Graham Arnold saw two different A-League games unfold on Australia Day.

The result was the same, a 1-0 win to Victory after Matthew Jurman's own goal, but that was about all the two coaches could agree on.

Arnold saw a bunch of brave battlers on the toughest away trip in the league undone by a goal he claimed shouldn't have stood.

Muscat saw only one team interested in entertaining and securing three points.

"There was one team trying to win, and one team trying not to lose," Muscat said.

"And that's no disrespect, it's just a clear fact.

"There's many ways to play the game and I thought (the result) was justice."

Arnold laughed off Muscat's claims that he set his side up for a draw.

"I thought we controlled most of the game," he said.

"We created as much as them ... we didn't take our chances and they didn't either."

Arnold said he saw a foul on Milos Ninkovic in the build-up to the game's only goal, that was sliced into his own net by Jurman.

The former Socceroos boss also maintained his side didn't come to Etihad Stadium to bog the game down.

Where some saw tedium, Arnold saw "a good game tactically from both teams" and issued a polite reminder of his credentials to anyone - Sydney FC fans included - that might criticise his coaching style.

"You watch some teams play and they don't have a plan to nullify the strengths of oppositions," he said.

"I don't read newspapers, I don't read websites, I don't even know how to use most of it.

"If I start listening to supporters I might as well go sit with them.

"I've been coaching in the A-League four years, three grand finals, a championship, a premiership, so it's working."

Muscat, who is good friends with Arnold, was reluctant to criticise his former international team-mate.

But the Victory boss, who also has an A-League championship on his coaching CV, said he preferred a different approach

"I'm not saying there's a right and a wrong way," he said.

"Beauty's in the eye of the beholder but there's a reason that 30,000 people turned up to watch us play."