A growing chorus of Premier League managers has taken aim at Arsenal\u2019s set-piece methods, but Mikel Arteta has framed the debate differently: his main concern is that his team have not converted enough dead-ball opportunities.<\/p>\n
Liverpool\u2019s Arne Slot led the criticism, lamenting how \u201chis heart as a former player\u201d doesn\u2019t like the rough treatment in penalty boxes. \u201cHere, you can almost hit a goalkeeper in the face and the referee still says, \u2018Play on,\u2019\u201d he claimed. Brighton boss Fabian H\u00fcrzeler attacked Arsenal\u2019s corner routines more directly: \u201cFor me, the main topic is [to] make a clear rule how much time you can waste for a corner, for a throw-in, for a free-kick,\u201d H\u00fcrzeler fumed in midweek. \u201cWhen Arsenal has a corner and they are leading, sometimes they spend over one minute just to take a corner.\u201d<\/p>\n
Opta data underpins that complaint: Arsenal take an average of four minutes and 18 seconds to prepare for corners each game, the most in the division. The piece noted it would be quicker to drive from London to Brighton (one hour, 56 minutes) than watch a supercut of Arsenal\u2019s preparations for corner kicks over the course of the entire season (two hours, five minutes).<\/p>\n
Michael Carrick added his voice: \u201cIt wasn\u2019t long ago we were told you couldn’t lay a hand on anyone in the box and it would be stamped out,\u201d he grumbled. \u201cIt\u2019s crept in. The success of set pieces, corners in particular, probably in terms of being able to put so many bodies close together, has made more teams do it because the success rate is so high.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s understandable why there are so many teams doing it. As a game, it doesn\u2019t feel like we\u2019ve got that balance right.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta, refusing to be drawn on the timing criticism, called it \u201cpart of the job.\u201d He added: \u201cI am upset we haven\u2019t scored more and that we have conceded [from set pieces] as well. We want to be the best and most dominant team in every aspect of the game. That is the trajectory and the aim of this team.\u201d<\/p>\n
Arteta argued the broader issue is the evolution of man-to-man marking: \u201cThere are phases, and there are moments when a team has an opportunity to do certain things, and the game is evolving, and the game is becoming more and more difficult [in open play],\u201d he fretted. He pointed to a Chelsea match in which Liam Rosenior\u2019s use of Cole Palmer and Enzo Fern\u00e1ndez bamboozled Mart\u00edn Zubimendi. Arteta adjusted the brief so Zubimendi would only deal with Fern\u00e1ndez while one of Gabriel or William Saliba tracked Palmer; Chelsea scarcely had a sniff thereafter.<\/p>\n
WhoScored data shows set-piece goals across major leagues: Premier League 202 (25.6%), Serie A 155 (23.6%), Bundesliga 145 (21.2%), La Liga 128 (18.6%), Ligue 1 99 (16.4%).<\/p>\n
Pep Guardiola chose restraint. \u201cI understand completely the reason why Arne said that and in some aspects I agree,\u201d Guardiola conceded. \u201cYou can sit and complain, but you have to adapt,\u201d Manchester City\u2019s revered tactician insisted. \u201cYou have to adapt and especially adapt in the way it is whistled [refereed] and conducted in the Premier League.\u201d He added: \u201cFootball is about how, when the opponents create problems for you, you have to find a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arteta defends Arsenal corners after wider criticism; Guardiola insists coaches must adapt on pitch.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7472,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,192,172],"tags":[1081,1162,299],"class_list":["post-7473","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-arsenal","category-epl","tag-adaptation","tag-analytics","tag-arne-slot"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7472"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}