Oxford United made particular use of the 31-year-old midfielder’s long throws in the second half of the season, with it leading to the equaliser at Norwich City in March and the winner at Sheffield Wednesday in April.
Only three teams scored more goals from set plays (15) than Arsenal last season, with set piece coach Nicolas Jover credited for the Gunners’ success, and Vaulks is glad to see the route to goal receiving plenty of attention.
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Vaulks said: “How cool is it now everyone loves long throws? I’ve seen some of the best teams, maybe not quite Man City, doing long throws.
“For years, I have had so much stick about long throws. I don’t mind it, it’s no skin off my nose.
“For ages, it was just me in the league chucking it in. Maybe there was one other player doing it.
“You get detrimental comments from managers as well, it’s not just players. I don’t mind the players on the pitch, but managers were doing it, the press were doing it.
“I’ve had it for a while. And now because Arsenal have got a set piece coach and they do it, look at all the teams doing it.
“I don’t mind people putting me with just a long throw, I don’t care anymore. I know there’s more to my game. Check some of my goals out, they’re not bad.
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“With the throws, if you had a free kick in that position, would you put it in the box? Nine times out of 10, you would cross it in the box, so why would you not throw it in the box?
“Your arm tends to be better than your foot, or mine is anyway for that distance. It worked in the end, and we got quite good at it, and then teams are scared of it, and that’s when you can actually build momentum into your game.
“It worked in the end, and we scored some really important goals off it. Obviously with my ankle issue, the throw-ins became even more important towards the end.
“It gets mocked and it gets scorned upon, but if you actually realise it’s going to score you a goal, like Arsenal have now realised, then you will. You don’t need to do it all the time, but sometimes it’s effective.
“I keep mentioning Arsenal because it’s the club that’s in my head, but look at the way they work their set plays and throw-ins.
“You work on them and the lads in the middle will have different patterns they’ll run, or I’ll try and throw it on a specific player because you can’t just chuck it in and expect a goal.
“That might happen one in 100, but you need to have some formality to it, and also then mixing it up with other little signals, but I don’t want to give away all of the tricks of the trade or I’ll be out of a job.”