Mikel Arteta
Mikel Arteta may have a fresh problem on his hands
Monaco may have discovered a genius tactic to beat Arsenal despite their defeat in North London.
The French side fell to a 3-0 reverse in the Champions League on Wednesday evening - Bukayo Saka scoring a brace, while Kai Havertz also found the net late on. Arsenal’s victory saw them take a significant step towards the knockout rounds of the competition.
And while it did their Champions League hopes no harm at all, it could have actually done damage in the Premier League. Arsenal have of course been clinical from corners over the past few seasons - down to no small part from their set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.
The Gunners have scored from 22 corners in the Premier League from the start of last season - more than any other side. But Monaco made sure to take that threat away.
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As Arsenal prepared to line up a corner in the second-half of Wednesday’s game, the visitors actually left three men up. That forced the Gunners to also bring three men out of the box to ensure against a counter-attack.
And it appeared to work as Monaco goalkeeper Radosław Majecki claimed the ball unchallenged. It remains to be seen if any of the Gunners’ Premier League rivals attempt to copy the tactic if they come up against them.
Even before Monaco’s clever move, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has already warned his side that they need to be even better from set pieces. Speaking after the draw with Fulham, he said: "We can still be much better, there are a lot of things to improve, even in that area.
"I know that a lot of people see set-pieces as something separate. I don't, and I fully disagree with that. I respect it. One thing is the consequence of another thing.”
Monaco left three men up from an Arsenal corner (
Image:
Twitter/Canal+)
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Meanwhile, Arteta has also responded to a few comments about Arsenal’s threat from set pieces. Ex-Manchester United star Dimitar Berbatov claimed that the Gunners were the ‘new Stoke City ’.
He said: "I understood very well what Berbatov said. It was in the best possible way. We will take it as a big compliment, 100 per cent."
Meanwhile, Gary Neville also slammed Jover as the “most annoying bloke in football”. Arteta responded: "We take it as a compliment and fuel to be better, because we are not perfect, at all, even in that department.
"Defending set-pieces [against Man Utd], we conceded three chances from that kind of situation. There is a lot to improve and the margins are always there for us to explore and try to get better.
"Last year, we were the team in the history of this club to score the most goals. We want more. We have more margins and we can do things better. The defence, exactly the same. Environment, the same thing. We are going to try to improve it all."
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