It is the fascinating tactic everyone is talking about.
Arsenal’s season is being defined by one masterful trump card they can't stop scoring from: set-pieces.
The Gunners have scored an extraordinary 23 goals from these situations since the beginning of the 2023/24 season.
In the current campaign, 33% of the 27 goals they have scored have come from set-pieces (9).
The stats are dizzying.
Under Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have routinely adapted their tactics. From being an explosively attacking team that should’ve won the title in 22/23, to switching to a more possession-based formula last season of sustained, patient attacks in response to the previous collapse.
Though they are devastating from set pieces, Arsenal's attack from open play has regressed. Against Fulham, they accumulated an expected goals (xG) tally of just 0.3 in open play.
Arteta would prefer to have the weapon of set-pieces in his armoury as well as the fluid attack from the previous seasons, but it's salient at the moment that isn't happening.
Unless it was a set-piece once the game against Fulham was levelled, Arsenal rarely threatened.
In big games vs Liverpool and Tottenham, the approach was more pragmatic with the plan being to hold what they have.
With the current campaign almost halfway through, it's worth delving into why Arsenal are unstoppable from set pieces and whether their reliance on them can win the title.
Why are Arsenal so effective from set-pieces?
There are nine Fulham players in the six-yard area, but Arsenal's players create chaos inside the box because they start their runs from outside.
As the corner is taken, a lot of the Fulham players are turning their heads to see where the Arsenal players are running.
The timing is spot on. Some of those in white are still looking over their shoulder while simultaneously having to deal with the fact that two Arsenal players have made a run to the near post and the rest of them have caused a melee.
The corners are delivered into the tightly-packed area.
It’s so difficult to defend against because some of the players are distracting the Fulham defenders, who have to clear it all the while competing in the air against Arsenal's six-footers.
In that congested six-yard area, there is barely room for a Fulham player to find space and jump.
It's the practice of a perfectly-weighted delivery aimed at athletic, tall players who are next to one another.
The players who make the run to the near post are there for disrupting, the corner is aimed at the likes of Thomas Partey, Kai Havertz and William Saliba who are more likely to get on the end of it as opposed to the shorter players like Jurriën Timber.
The danger in the set-pieces lies in ensuring there are as many players as possible close to each other.
The hand signals from the taker, be it Bukayo Saka or Declan Rice, indicate when the corner will be taken and when theymake the run. One hand up can indicate a back post corner whereas no hand up could mean it is being delivered to the near post.
The variations in the set pieces keep teams guessing.
For Saliba's goal vs Fulham, there are no near-post runs, but because Fulham are anticipating there will be, players are once again looking over their shoulders, only to be fooled as the ball sails over every player.
Can set-pieces win Arsenal the title?
Teams don’t have a solution to Arsenal’s corners thus far as we hit fourteen games in.
Injuries in the season to Rice and Saka would hinder their threat because the delivery is on top of the goalkeeper a remarkable amount of times.
A solution would be to have a proactive goalkeeper looking to punch or claim the ball, but Andre Onana tried and failed to do this for Manchester United. The goalkeeper isn't always going to successfully claim it, and if he comes off his line it can leave an empty net.
Despite Arsenal's inevitability with corners, they are still just two points clear of crisis-hit Manchester City and six behind Liverpool.
The difference with why Arne Slot’s men have dropped just seven points is Liverpool are attacking the title, Arsenal's challenge is more on the cautious side.
Slot's side throw caution to the wind and aren't afraid to riskily go for it in games. It's not that Arsenal don't have the depth or firepower to do the same, they're choosing not to do so.
Throughout the season, winning 1-0 through a set-piece goal will be a crafty way to grind out a result.
But relying on winning in this manner this early into the campaign indicates an overreliance on set-pieces.
In their Champions League encounter against Monaco, the French team left three attackers up the pitch meaning Arsenal committed fewer men forward for corners and had to leave two defenders back in case of a transition.
Teams with armies of analysts in the season will study others and come up with solutions, regardless of how effective a tactic is.
If Arsenal are to seriously compete for the title as they have in the last two seasons, they must improve their overall attack and find a way to combine it with the threat from corners, rather than simply looking to the latter.
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