Arsenal’s Reliance on Set-Pieces Examined After Arteta’s ‘Small Margins’ Comment

Arsenal currently trail Premier League leaders Liverpool by six points. Despite manager Mikel Arteta dismissing comparisons to Stoke City earlier in the week, the Gunners’ recent draw against Fulham at Craven Cottage highlighted the impact of set-piece coach Nicolas Jover. William Saliba netted the equalizing goal for the visiting side six minutes into the second half, converting a tap-in after a play where Kai Havertz headed Declan Rice’s corner towards the French player. This goal represented another instance of the effective set-piece strategies developed by Jover, who has significantly improved the club’s performance in this aspect of play since his arrival from Manchester City in 2021. Arsenal controlled the rest of the match and believed they had secured a winning goal when Bukayo Saka scored with a header two minutes before the end of regular time. However, the goal was disallowed after a video assistant referee (VAR) review determined that Gabriel Martinelli was offside during the preceding play. Arteta expressed his disappointment, stating, “I am gutted that we didn’t win it.” He added, “We fully deserved to win it. We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. But for millimetres we could have been here with a really dominant win.” This outcome places Arsenal six points adrift of Premier League leaders Liverpool, having contested one additional match. Arsenal’s proficiency from corner kicks garnered considerable attention after their 2-0 victory over Manchester United earlier in the week, where defenders Jurrien Timber and Saliba were the goal scorers. This performance prompted lighthearted comparisons to Stoke City, a team renowned for its mastery of all set-piece situations during its tenure in the top-flight under Tony Pulis. Arteta described the comparisons to Stoke as a “big compliment,” and his tactical approach proved effective once more as Saliba secured the equalizer. This marked Arsenal’s 23rd goal scored directly from a corner kick since the beginning of last season, surpassing any other team in Europe’s major leagues. Arsenal had 39 minutes plus additional time to secure a winning goal, yet their threats to Fulham’s goal from open play were infrequent. Nevertheless, Arteta disputed the suggestion that the Gunners have grown overly dependent on set-pieces for scoring. The Arsenal manager informed BBC Sport, “We should have scored from different ways as well because we had some big chances.” During the match at Craven Cottage, the Gunners registered an Expected Goals (xG) figure of 2.0, indicating that they could have realistically been expected to score two goals from the opportunities they generated. However, an examination of the Gunners’ xG from open play – which excludes chances originating from free-kicks and corners – presents a somewhat different picture. Against Fulham, Arsenal’s open play xG was merely 0.3, marking their second-lowest figure this season, surpassed only by the 0.18 achieved during the 2-2 draw against Manchester City at Etihad Stadium in September. Across the current season, Arsenal’s open play xG stands at 15.9 from their 15 Premier League fixtures, positioning them 10th in the league for this metric. In these 15 matches, the Gunners have recorded an open play xG of 1.0 or less on 10 occasions. Out of their 27 goals (excluding penalties) scored in the Premier League this season, nine have originated from set-pieces, constituting 33.33% of their total. Only Nottingham Forest (35.3%), Crystal Palace (38.5%), and Everton (57.1%) have a higher percentage of their non-penalty goals from set-pieces in the Premier League this season. When questioned in his news conference about his team’s open-play chance creation, Arteta responded, “It’s never enough if you don’t score three, four or five.” Following Chelsea’s 4-3 victory against Tottenham, the Blues have overtaken Arsenal to claim second place, now four points behind Liverpool. Arteta commented, “We have really good momentum, the team’s playing well and winning a lot of games and we wanted to do it again. The performance 100% was there.” He concluded, “The winning probability would be so high but this is football and the margins are so small.”