BRENT A GOB: This week, Harry Brent is taking aim at Arsenal over their set piece obsession and at the North London giants' talisman Bukayo Saka
11:46, 05 Feb 2026Updated 11:51, 05 Feb 2026
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Our man Harry Brent is fuming in his latest column
Arsenal's fetish for corners is really doing my head in – and not just because it's to tactics what a microwaved ready meal is to cooking.
This is a team who are favourites to win the Premier League, Champions League and Carabao Cup this season, yet their playing style is more unimaginative than Brooklyn Beckham's photography. It's Tony Pulis in a turtleneck football – and that's inexcusable for a squad worth £1.1billion.
Instead of outplaying teams, Arsenal just out-shoulder-barge them. They're basically a lorry hogging both lanes and anyone trying to overtake gets ploughed into the railing.
Arsenal and Man Utd players compete for the ball at a corner
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Arsenal's obsession with set-pieces has made them boring to watch(Image: Getty Images)
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Saturday's win over Leeds summed it up. Their first two goals came from corners, the latter of which was scored by their second-top scorer this season: Own Goals. Hell of a player, him. Deserves a pay rise.
Yes, I realise the goal was later awarded to Noni Madueke – but let's be honest, Arsenal rely on other people's boobs more than a newborn baby.
By obsessing over set pieces, the Gunners have straightjacketed themselves. Sure, they've developed a knack for bundling goalmouth scrambles over the line, but they're just so bland and unmemorable. They're the Ed Miliband of football clubs – technically successful, but you wouldn't know it by watching them in action.
Arsenal and Chelsea players compete for the ball at a corner
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The Gunners have the quality to outplay teams, but instead, they just want to outmuscle them(Image: Getty Images)
I mean, how can anyone be top of the league in February with their leading scorer on just six goals? That's a more embarrassing return than Frank Lampard's second stint as Chelsea manager.
This dull, brutish, risk-averse nonsense might win them the league, but against the top sides in Europe, they'll come undone faster than Bill Clinton's flies in the Oval Office.
Boo-kayo Saka
Like British Rail and Ricky Gervais' career since The Office, Bukayo Saka has been getting away with being mediocre for far too long.
He's continually treated like a world-beater, but the stats tell a story that's even more dismal than Arsenal's record in European finals.
Bukayo Saka gestures
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Bukayo Saka's disappointing form has been going under the radar(Image: Catherine Ivill - AMA, Getty Images)
In the last three years, he's only managed two match-deciding goals in the league that weren't from the penalty spot. Two. Since March 2023. That's Tory Party-levels of inexcusably rubbish.
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Not only that – in the last 24 months, he's only scored four non-penalty goals away from home, while just nine of his 57 league strikes have come during the final third of the season – you know, when the pressure's on.
For a man who is supposed to be the 'Star Boy' of an Arsenal side cruising at the top of the Premier League, he's doing an awful lot of Cristiano Ronaldoing – standing around while others do the heavy lifting.
Yes, goals aren't everything. And I'll be the first person to tell you stats don't paint the whole picture. But Saka is being given a heck of a lot of grace for a bloke whose numbers are about as healthy as Charlie Sheen.