Arsenal have been getting a lot of grief – particularly from evil F365 – about the set-piece farrago. Now the defence begins.
This is a bit of a one-note Mailbox; there will be more on Spurs later. Send your e-mails to theeditor@football365.com
The Arsenal Antidote
Right – I’ve resisted, but here we are, another Harry Hooler unnecessary missive for the masses. Arsenal, eh? What a team! I’d rather have watched the escalating tensions in the Middle East this weekend than that lot rot their way to a win at home to Chelsea – while, heaven forbid, Chelsea tried to emulate them!
So how do we stop them from destroying our dear old game before the “beautiful” game is lost to time like the WM formation? (A formation, notably also created by Arsenal)
I had two conversations last week with the same disgruntled commenter, who could not believe the poor women and children of this fair nation having to witness… shirt pulling! at a corner! and… timewasting! In both conversations I posed this reasonable question – because if Arsenal are genuinely the bane of modern football and a scourge on society – what is the antidote? Both times the conversation died at the thought because apparently “us football fans don’t like to discuss things, just listen to me moan until things go away, ok!?”
To be clear on my genuine position – I both, do believe this Arsenal side have historically played more aesthetically pleasing football under this regime and that it is a shame to see lessened (not gone) creativity but they are perfectly within their right to play oft-stodgy football/literal rugby (delete as appropriate) as pleases the manager and their players (we haven’t seen MANY creative differences with players under Arteta yet to be fair) and whatever success it might bring however this fair morning I saw a close friend BTL call a fair point to proceedings – the back pass rule used to be legal, it was outlawed for entertainment.
So – what do we outlaw here to save the game? Shirt pulling? I’d love that, genuinely, but despite years of PGMOL saying they’d focus it – all teams still pull and grab as best they can get away with. It isn’t even a difficult thing to kybosh – just don’t let a hand grab a shirt – its quite an obvious act
Play-acting? Fine – there isn’t a football fan out there that wouldn’t love to see simulation gone in its entirety but it’s a near impossibility to determine what’s a “Gabriel special” and what’s a “oh dear, no, it looks like that Bradley fella is actually in a bit of bother there” so that can’t really go
I even posed an option surrounding delaying restarts, which I genuinely believe would bring entertainment – a blanket time limit on re-starting possession. I think I said 10-seconds, but reduce it further, 5 second restart or you lose possession – the opposition doesn’t restart? Oops back it goes – it’ll be like a Saturday night gameshow until clubs figure it out.
Apologies if this all seems like I’m trying to be “reasonable”, I actually just haven’t seen anyone pose the “fix” – just alot of bellyaching about the condition. If we don’t reasonably posit a solution that actually stops this Arsenal, or United under Simeone, or Liverpool’s charge to an unbeaten season in 2038 under the stewardship of Virgil Van Dijk – what can we reasonably expect to change?
With Love and Friendship,
Harold Eggfried Hooler
P.S: the sun has got his hat on, and he’s coming out to play – let’s all cheer up a smidge.
Set-piece goals and me
So I play FIFA a lot (ahh f***, I really need to stop calling it that… fine — EA FC), and I’ve been at it since the days of my Sega Genesis, back when thumb blisters were a badge of honour and Madden cartridges ruled equal space beside football games. Set-piece goals have always been in my arsenal — yes, pun absolutely intended — and over the years I’ve perfected what I consider a dying art.
My routine is simple but sacred: whip the ball in fast, just enough curl to cause panic, just enough power to make hesitation fatal. Crowd the keeper, attack the near chaos, and aim for the aerial monsters. One season I literally signed Sergio Ramos purely for this purpose — no romance, just ruthless efficiency — and he proceeded to head me to a league title. If you know, you know.
Which is why I genuinely don’t understand the quiet war being waged against set-piece mastery in the 25/26 edition. Corners now feel sanitised, neutered almost — like the game wants every goal to be a carefully constructed passing move instead of occasionally embracing glorious, ugly, elbows-up mayhem in the six-yard box. Football — real or virtual — has always had room for specialists, for the Beckham delivery, the Ramos leap, the centre-half who becomes prime Ronaldo for three seconds every corner.
Maybe I’m just showing my age. Maybe this is nostalgia talking — the same nostalgia that remembers late-night Genesis sessions switching between FIFA and Madden, convinced tactics actually mattered even when we barely understood them. But removing the reward for mastering set pieces feels like sanding down one of football’s rough, beautiful edges.
Bring back the fear. Bring back the chaos. Let corners matter again.
Because sometimes, the perfect goal isn’t twenty passes and a cutback — sometimes it’s a wicked delivery, a towering header, and a goalkeeper wondering how on earth he lost control of his own box.
Gaptoothfreak, Man. Utd., New York (Lifelong set-piece merchant)
This is what happens with over-analysis…
I understand the grievances a lot of people have with corners in the league this season. We have to understand why this has happened, it’s actually a result of the league tactically analysing itself to oblivion.
The analytics behind every game are so enormous that most fans would be unable to truly understand the meaning and purpose of it all. We are at a point where teams are tactically analysing each other to the extent that they’re effectively cancelling each other out in open play. This leaves the often undervalued opportunities of corners to maximise attacking chances and, combined with higher tolerance for physicality in the league, more density of players and grappling on corners.
The problem for referees is that there’s so much pushing, shoving and holding on corners by both sides that they can’t clearly determine who should get a foul so they’ll typically let play continue on the assumption that everyone’s doing it so everyone’s cancelling it out. Now we could use the technology to adjudicate with slow motion replays and a closer focus on tussles in the box but then the VAR-deniers will chime in and say that we’re analysing the minutiae of the game too deeply and that it’s taking too much time to come to decisions which will irritate both matchgoers and TV viewers.
This seems to be a perfect storm created by the sheer amount of investment, analysis and risk-management that’s consumed the Premier League and I’m not sure what the solution could be. If Arsenal does this all the way to the title, collecting many tears and tantrums along the way, I sure as hell won’t mind. We’re long overdue a title after flopping on so many occasions while trying to play like saints against absolute bastards.
Vish (AFC), Melbourne
Arsenal not the worst set-piece offenders, just the most criticised
So another win with two goals from corners and now Arsenal are getting another kicking for dragging football back to the stone ages.
A funny thing though is that for at least three of the last four games, it’s pretty clear that whilst Arsenal might be the best at scoring from corners, they’re definitely not the most physical/grapperly.
In fact, at least when it comes to impeding the goalkeeper and packing the six-yard box, if you watch back the Chelsea game and Brentford game, Raya is getting a hell of a lot worse treatment than his opposing number.
Sanchez whining about one arm brushing him, whilst Raya sticks to his job whilst having both arms wrapped around him from a Chelsea player pushing him away from the goal? In the Brentford game Raya was constantly pincered by players piling on him and frankly did remarkably to come away with the ball as much as he did.
And for the smug Wolves social media clipping together timewasting, like Mosquera was diving constantly and Bueno clotheslining Trossard off the ball – that should have been a red card, but it wasn’t even punished.
What makes Arsenal effective at set pieces are all the misdirects and motions, with the intention of getting single players on the ball – it isn’t crowding the keeper, or manhandling anyone. Blocking off the keeper is about the most that they actually do that is really a ‘dark art’.
We weren’t the first team to have a specialist set piece coach. We’re not the team with the most fouls from set pieces. We don’t have very aggressive players or defenders (in fact, we’re a very clean team overall in terms of discipline). This season, the league as a whole is a lot more physical and set pieces are up across the board. We’re riding the wave, but didn’t start this, just mastered it first.
So why the hate? Well, we’re the best at it, and winning the most in a way that people are more comfortable having a scrappy underdog utilise, not the top of the table team. And every corner is under the microscope because of the success – fair play to Leon Osman and Joe Hart for calling it as it is on MOTD, it’s a you hate us, cos you ain’t us deal.
And it bleeds into other games now too, somehow we’re at fault for Everton-United being a rubbish game, despite one of the managers being Moyes, who Arteta learned from and heavily cites as an inspiration for his defensive approaches, philosophies and exploiting every opportunity, from when he was an Everton player.
Go back to 2021 and watch the average corner and you’ll see very little difference. In fact, go back and specifically watch the Brentford – Arsenal season opener from that season and look at the constant fouling on Leno, which led to at least one goal and is for me the inception of Arteta’s realisation that set pieces was something that needed to be converted from a weakness into a strength…
And don’t get me started on the contrast in narrative between City’s ‘statement win/mark of champions’ sneak past Leeds versus Arsenal’s ‘nerves getting to them/collapse around the corner’ win against a CL contender…
Tom, Leyton
Stop picking on Arsenal
I don’t normally feel compelled to write in, however, Will Ford’s recent match write up/hitpiece on Arsenal was by far one of the lowest points in his journalism career.
(Not even top 10 – Ed)
The piece in question was titled ‘Arsenal need Raya, Sanchez and good fortune to stumble past infuriating Chelsea’.
Funnily enough, on my Google News feed, his link was actually titled ‘Arsenal cheats need Raya, Sanchez to stumble past infuriating Chelsea’.
Now, I don’t know what’s been going on in F365, or some sections of the media, but the bias is getting obvious now. What’s your problem exactly? It’s very weird, And this is coming from an Everton fan. Has to be called out.
We know Ford is a Chelsea supporter, very likely upset at the result, but your standards are dragging low. Even Johnny Nic doing his yearly attack on Arteta is wearing thin. Then you get the tiresome ‘Stewie’ character that gets wheeled out, which is obviously one of the writers trying to bait (most likely Ford).
(Nope; he’s real – Ed)
Are you doing this just for clicks or are you genuinely scared at them winning it this year and looking like utter divs, or what? Look at the top 5 or 6 teams this year ffs.
Literally ALL of them are having clunky games, winning badly – see City with their VAR fortune, Man U had red card fortune, and then there’s Villa who some of you were laughingly shouting for the title a month or so ago being embarrassed by a resurgent Wolves.
What’s the deal, guys? You can’t say “it’s the supporters”, as literally all of the popular teams have their fair share of helmets online (a quick look at the social media comment section of an article on any club proves this). Arteta actually comes across as quite a nice bloke and their club seems to be run pretty well as far as I can see. The utter hogwash about set pieces as well!
Chelsea aren’t that far behind Arsenal (just 3 goals, I think?).
So, what’s your problem? Because you’re all looking quite desperate now.
Cliff R. – Bluenose in Toronto [Wonderful result over the Toon at the weekend, by the way!]
…Another day/week, and another load of drek written by your ‘journalists’.
It has been refreshing over the last couple of weeks to read emails from fans of other clubs writing to the editor to complain about the nonsense published on your website. Unfortunately, Mr. Nic doesn’t seem to have caught the drift and continues his narrative-based scribblings. At least he doesn’t wander off into virtue signaling pseudo political thought this time.
Can F365 please go back to being a website that writes interesting pieces based on looking at things like facts in a balanced way? Think more The Athletic than Daily Mail online. Articles by you saying Arteta should be sacked and predicting his replacement(s)? Mental. You may as well write an article assessing who your next supermodel girlfriend could be.
Yet again, this morning there’s moaning about Arsenal in some format or another. How dare Arsenal find a way to win games? Surely everyone should be pleased… Everyone was saying how weak and pathetic Arsenal were for years – well we’ve listened and here we are. Physical, aggressive, ‘wanting it more’, finding ways to win, winning ugly, yadda yadda. Except, of course, this isn’t the whole truth.
If I wanted to be ridiculous in the opposite direction, I could argue that Man City scraped past Leeds away this weekend, making it the second time this season they have stumbled past this relegation candidate, having won 3-2 at home and 0-1 away. Shocking! Pathetic! Embarrassing! Pep’s a big bald fraud. Haaland is a clogger with stupid hair. City’s defensive unit is a clown car driven by a blind guy. Arsenal beat Leeds 5-0 at home and 0-4 away. So, Arteta is a genius. Our attack is an unholy combination of Brazil 70 and Cruyff’s Netherlands. Neither are true. Obviously. Like most things the truth lies somewhere in the middle. Disentangling it is difficult and requires nuance.
Arsenal have the third highest xG in the league. Behind Man U and Liverpool. Ahead of 115 Charge FC. It seems people would rather have actual cheats win the league because they play (it is claimed) attractive (albeit lower average xG than Arsenal) football. This neatly ignores the real reason why Arsenal are top – the fact that our xGA is by miles the best in the league. The only team under 1.0 xGA (0.9). So, if you want to ridicule Arsenal for being boring, at least get it right; we are ‘boring’ because we make it very very hard to score against us. When Mourinho did this he was hailed as a genius. A horrible human, but a football genius.
People also seem to have confusions over the obvious. It’s not Arteta’s job to entertain the neutral. It’s his job to win. And lack of entertainment is different to lack of quality. Ideas are back to front. The logic seems to go that Arsenal are rubbish because ‘look at how they have to win’ and therefore ‘everyone in the league must be super rubbish because they are behind Arsenal’. It is plain this isn’t correct. Six English teams in the CL last 16. One of whom is mid table in the PL, and one is an actual relegation candidate. Put Man U and Villa in the CL they almost certainly make the last 16 also. Villa gave PSG huge troubles last season, for goodness’ sake!
Arsenal are having to win this way because everyone else is so good and the PL is so bloody hard. Even the best teams can’t champagne football their way past half the teams in the league anymore. Just by being in the PL most teams are in the top 30 richest football clubs in the world. Top coaches, international players everywhere. Technically and tactically sophisticated. All capable of pressing, mid-block and low block. PL teams are all physically powerful and can all throw on five quality subs per game allowing the intensity to be maintained.
It was amazing to see earlier this season when Sunderland subbed on an entirely fresh and very good front line at the Stadium of Light against us around the 60 min mark. Brobbey is a good player and scored. When coming up against highly organized and stubborn low blocks you naturally get more set pieces and they represent one of the few opportunities to deliver accurate entry into the box with attackers numerically equal to the defense.
People acting like Arsenal invented the set piece are laughable. In the PL era it was Wimbledon who really brought the aerial bombardment to the game. Our long throws and free kicks also don’t do much. It’s corners that we excel at. Again, before moaning, the least people can do is try to be accurate. I don’t necessarily expect the average mailboxer to look at some facts before they write, though it would be nice. But please F365, you should be doing better.
Josh, AFC
And finally…
Your website has become a sad pathetic shitheap much like everything else surrounding the beautiful game. Had enough, I sincerely hope the ad revenue was worth it. Sportswriting is dead, go f*** yourselves.
Jim Britton