Mikel Arteta is a manager who likes to use a lot of visual aids to motivate his team.
Indeed, we saw during Arsenal’s Amazon Prime documentary a few years ago that Mikel Arteta loves to use drawings and writings to inspire his team.
Whether it’s an optical illusion of a duck and a rabbit or using a whiteboard to tell the story of how he met his wife, Arteta loves to use visual stimuli to get his team going.
Now, Arteta has written a very clear message on the wall at the Arsenal training ground.
Speaking on the Seaman Says Podcast, David Seaman has shared some insight from the Arsenal training ground after doing some coaching sessions at London Colney recently.
Seaman says that Arsenal now have four words written on the wall in the training ground in big letters – ‘Set-pieces win games’.
David Seaman, management of England reacts prior to Soccer Aid For Unicef 2021 training at Mottram Hall on September 02, 2021 in Wilmslow, England.
Photo by Charlotte Tattersall/Getty Images
What’s written on the wall at Arsenal’s training ground
Seaman shared some insight into Arsenal training while reserving some special praise for Nicolas Jover, Arsenal’s set-piece coach.
Declan Rice praised Jover last season, and now, Seaman has also hailed the set-piece coach.
“It’s done at the training ground, a lot of time is spent on that. The set-piece coach, Nico, is really good at that and the results show you that. There’s a massive slogan on the wall ‘set-pieces win games’ on the wall at the training ground, and it’s showing you that, the amount of prep that goes into that,” Seaman said.
Arsenal’s set-piece record
Set-pieces win games is the sort of motto you’d expect a lower-table side to live by, but it’s stood Arsenal in good stead this season.
Gabriel Magalhaes was amongst the goals again this weekend, showcasing his set-piece threat after Ben White called the defender ‘scary’.
Gabriel is on track for a historic goalscoring season, and the numbers show that he’s become a uniquely lethal threat in recent times.
Top scoring Premier League centre-backs since 2021/22 Goals
Gabriel Magalhaes 17
Virgil van Dijk 9
Fabian Schar 8
Ben Mee 8
Ethan Pinnock 8
That’s because of Arsenal’s overall excellence from set-plays since the start of last season.
Indeed, Arsenal are getting more goals from dead balls than any other Premier League team.
Most goals from set-pieces since 2023/24 Goals
Arsenal 25
Everton 23
Man City 20
Aston Villa 20
Liverpool 17
*Excluding penalties
As for this season alone, Arsenal are scoring a remarkable 27% of their goals from set-pieces and penalties this season, and those goals are certainly helping Arsenal on their way to a title challenge.
If Arsenal do manage to turn the tide and win the Premier League this season, then their ability from set-pieces will have played a massive part in that.
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