Arsenal uncover simple solution to huge problem

Last season when Arsenal traveled to the King Power Stadium they tore Leicester apart with key performances from their two wide men: Nicolas Pepe and Willian both put on special showings, with that day arguably being the latter’s finest in red and white.

The stars aligned on that afternoon. Everything the duo did seemed to come off. Even the rarest of elements proved successful as Willian delivered a free-kick onto the head of David Luiz who guided the ball home beyond Kasper Schmeichel.

A dead ball, on a player’s head, that they scored from. On only six occasions in the Premier League last season did Arsenal score from set pieces – and two of those were direct free-kicks.

Against the same opposition on Saturday there was no Pepe or Willian. But, for the fourth match running, Arsenal repeated a feat that was an anomaly when it happened in the corresponding fixture last term: they scored from a set piece.

Arsenal uncover simple solution to huge problem with Emile Smith Rowe and Bukayo Saka being on set pieces a credit to Nicolas Jover’s impact

There is a trend being set. An immensely welcome trend. Bukayo Saka delivered a brilliant inswinging corner into the box and Gabriel rose highest to angle a header into the far corner. That makes it six goals from set pieces for Arsenal this campaign – more than any other side in the division.

How? What has happened? While, yes, there can be some debate over whether Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s goal against Crystal Palace should count as a set piece goal due to it not being phase one, the stats are the stats. And behind those stats the names of Emile Smith Rowe and Saka will appear.

It turns out they are the solutions. The simple, extremely effective solutions. No more Pepe corners hitting the first man or Dani Ceballos deliveries floating into orbit. At the route of Arsenal’s improvements from set pieces, not just corners, are two players who are capable of actually kicking the football.

Smith Rowe spoke about the need to contribute on set pieces after the Aston Villa win due to there being few right-footed players available as options, and now he and Saka are sharing those duties with aplomb.

Nicolas Jover has clearly had an impact. Calum Chambers’ reaction to scoring with his first touch was to run and celebrate with ‘Nico’, who had told him that was precisely what he was going to do.

Under Andreas Georgson, who made Arsenal unflappable in defensive set pieces, some of the unfathomable routines like crowding the goalkeeper while delivering an outswinging corner were regularly infuriating occurrences.

Jover has changed the takers, used different methods (near post, dummy runs and two-phase techniques) and found a way to make use of a colossus like Gabriel. At the heart of it all is putting Smith Rowe and Saka on the duties and now, quite remarkably, Arsenal top the charts having scored more set piece goals – excluding direct free-kicks – in the past four games than they had in the entirety of last season.

They may not be pretty, but dead balls are an essential element of the game. The way Arsenal started against the Foxes demanded that they score a goal and adding this string to their bow is immeasurably important in making the team more well rounded.

A simple solution to a huge problem.