Arteta's secret weapon in title race - Why are Arsenal so good at scoring set-pieces?

Arsenal were able to once again inflict a bitter defeat on their North London rivals on Sunday, with a narrow 1-0 victory over Tottenham in the Premier League. With both Declan Rice and Martin Ødegaard missing for Mikel Arteta’s side, the pressure was on Spurs to pick up a first victory over Arsenal since May 2022, but instead a solitary goal was enough to leave Ange Postecoglou’s side looking precarious on four points from their opening four games of the league campaign. While Tottenham may have been slight favourites for the tie, the goal that ultimately won it for Arsenal would have come as no great surprise to fans of either club. In the 64th minute a corner to Arsenal was fired into the box, which ultimately found the purposeful head of Gabriel, who had managed to lose his marker and fire the ball into the back of the net. Once again Arsenal had taken the lead through a well-worked set-piece and once again Tottenham had been undone by poor marking from a corner. 

Indeed, according to Opta since the start of last season only one team in the Premier League have conceded more goals from set-pieces than Postecoglou’s team, who've shipped 18 in that time - only Nottingham Forest have conceded more since then. In stark contrast but not entirely unrelated to that previous fact, Arsenal sit top of the Premier League table when it comes to goals from set-pieces and Sunday’s winner has seen Arteta’s team extend their lead over their domestic rivals. Not only have Arsenal scored 24 goals in that period of time, which is three more than second-placed Everton, but they’ve also bagged seven more than fellow title contenders Liverpool and Manchester City. Which goes to show just how much of an advantage these set-pieces are to Arteta’s side.

Why are Arsenal so good at scoring set-piece goals? 

Often accused of a lack of sturdiness and fight in the past, Arsenal are now the masters of converting set-pieces into goals. So how did this all come about? Well it all comes down to the appointment of French set piece coach Nicolas Jover in 2021, whom Arteta brought from Manchester City. And since then the North London side have added a new dimension to their game. On average there are between 10 and 11 corners in every Premier League match. So around 5.5 for each team. It doesn’t take a genius to see that if you can turn those five or six corners into genuine goalscoring chances, you are maximising your opportunities to be successful. As such, it has been an area of focus at the Emirates. 

Every time Arsenal get a corner or dangerous free-kick, Arteta takes a rare seat in the dugout. Set piece specialist Jover rises. Patrolling the technical area, and barking orders at the Arsenal players. His work is paying off. As can be seen in the graphic above, Arsenal have scored more set piece non-penalty goals than any other team in the Premier League since the start of season. Speaking to TNT sports after Arsenal's 5-0 victory against Crystal Palace back in January, winger Saka said, "We do a lot of work on set pieces. Nico, our set-piece coach, does a really good job though, he tries to make it fun and he's enjoying it. What he's doing is clearly working so we'll have to continue doing it." In November, Leandro Trossard was also speaking about Jover: "It's a pleasure to work with him. He's really clever on set-pieces. It's such a great aspect in the game where you can open up a game. It helped us already a lot.” And Trossard was a key component of Arsenal’s threat from corners on that afternoon against Palace at the Emirates. The Belgian would spin and block the jumping route of Palace’s main attacker of the ball Joachim Anderson. 

Is Gabriel the best goalscoring centre-half in the Premier League? 

The signing of centre-back Gabriel from Lille for €26m in the summer of 2020, is looking more and more like one of the great Premier League transfer coups of recent years with each passing season. The Brazilian has formed one of the most formidable centre-back partnerships in world football alongside Frenchmen William Saliba. His aggressive front foot defending, the perfect accompaniment to Saliba’s calm and composed nature. But it’s not just his elite defending that have made Gabriel stand out in an Arsenal shirt. He has become a menace in the opposition box, with his leap and the timing of his headers causing nightmares for defenders. 

In the past three seasons, no centre-back has scored more Premier League goals than Gabriel’s 13. Ben Mee and Virgil van Dijk come closest with eight each. His goals per game ratio in the division of 0.11gpg can only be bettered by two centre halves in the history of the division to have played 100 games or more - Thomas Vermaelen (0.12gpg) and Frank Leboeuf (0.12gpg). The all-time top goalscoring centre-back in the Premier League John Terry, who scored 41 times, has a 0.08gpg ratio. Gabriel was an ever present in the Arsenal team last season, and is third in the list of most consecutive league games played for the club, having made 75 appearances in a row from 2021 until he was left out in the Gunners home 2-2 draw to Fulham at the beginning of last season. The 26-year-old is a pivotal part of this Arsenal team in both boxes, and will be key to any challenge the Gunners make for the Premier League title.