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Arsenal have been compared to Stoke City after cutting Liverpool’s lead at the top of the Premier League to seven points
Speaking on Amazon Prime after the game between Arsenal and United, Berbatov joked that the Gunners were like Stoke due to the amount of goals they are generating from set-pieces. The Potters gained Premier League infamy in 2008 following their promotion from the Championship. Long throws from Rory Delap caused plenty of headaches for rival defences, with Arsenal corners starting to gain similar traction.
The former Bulgaria international said: "The Premier League is probably the only league in the world where you have players around the goalkeeper pushing and shoving, making chaos. Normally it is going to be a foul, not here! You need to be strong. He [Ruben Amorim] was probably watching from the side thinking 'what is going on with my goalkeeper?!' You need to work on that. As we joked, Arsenal are the new Stoke City - [they are] depending on set-pieces. It can give you a win, like it did today."
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta played down the narrative around his side relying heavily on set-pieces, as he said: “We need that, but we want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every phase of play. Today we could have scored from open play like we did against West Ham and Sporting. Last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club. Not because of only set-pieces, but because of a lot of things that we have. We want to create individual and magic moments, too.”
Recently-appointed United boss Ruben Amorim reflected: “They are also big players and you see every occasion when (Gabriel) Martinelli and (Bukayo) Saka have one-on-ones, a lot of times they go outside and they cross, and they know that if the cross goes well, they can score, and if it is a corner they can score, too, so we have to be better on that. You have seen in all Arsenal games that every team have had problems with that (corners). And the difference today was the set-pieces. You see a goal and then the momentum changed, and it is really hard for us to take the full control of the game after that.”
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