Are we going to talk about set pieces? Apparently. Do we want to? Not especially. Are Arsenal good at them? Yes. Does that bother everyone else? Clearly. Are Arsenal single-handedly destroying the sanctity of the beautiful game by mastering something they largely ignored during Arsene Wenger’s reign? No. Did Stoke and Bolton trigger a moral panic when they were good at it? Only occasionally, and that’s because they traumatised us. Do some of the loudest critics sound slightly unhinged about the whole thing? We’d lean that way, yep. Have Arsenal scored the most goals in the Premier League this season? Yes. Should they find a few more from open play? Ideally. Should everyone take a deep breath and move on because this debate is relentlessly dull? Absolutely. Would Mikel Arteta quite like to stop answering the same question every three days? You’d imagine so.
And yet, here we are again, picking over another round of press conferences where Arsenal’s set-piece routines are treated like a constitutional crisis. After Arne Slot and Pep Guardiola piped up, speaking in general terms, Brighton boss Fabian Hurzeler has specifically taken aim at the Gunners, and the time it takes our corner takers to restart the game.
It’s all a bit wearying, but since you’re here, we might as well go through it.
Arteta first brushed aside the idea that Arsenal are somehow ruining games or bending the rules with their physical approach.
He said: “We want to be the best and the most dominant team in every aspect of the game, and that’s the trajectory and the aim of this team, and as a club, we want to be the same, so we try to do that.”
Later, he was asked whether the criticism might stem from jealousy, particularly from teams who have struggled to deal with Arsenal’s methods.
“I don’t know. I mean, you as an opponent, you get upset when you concede a goal. I was really upset the way we conceded a goal against Chelsea, and Chelsea, look at the quality that they have, the amount of set-pieces they score. Manchester United are doing so well, the same. When I was at Man City, I used to work a lot on them. So, it’s something.
At that point, he shifted into a broader explanation of how the game itself has changed.
“There are phases and there are moments when a team has an opportunity to do certain things, and the game is evolving and the game is becoming more and more difficult.
“Before, when you used to do a game plan and you just invert a full-back and bring an extra player in midfield, or a false-nine and opponents are finished, [there’s a] big overload, 4v3 inside, 2v1 inside, time on the ball, so dominant, 70-80% of possession. The other opponent, two counter-attacks, set-pieces, the game is done.
“Now, teams are adapting. Teams know after every sequence of play, whether it’s a throw-in or a restart of play, an open-play situation, or direct play, exactly what they have to do, and everything is almost man-to-man. So, it’s going to be a different game unless we change the rules, because the evolution of the game is that.”
As for whether supporters rate a corner the same way they rate a 25-yard screamer, he was fairly pragmatic.
“I don’t know how you celebrate one goal different to another one. Maybe for YouTube it’s nicer one or another, I don’t know, but the reality of football depends a lot.
“I would like to play with three players extra in my own half to get some beautiful football and play always against a free man. This is not the reality of football.You want to watch that football you have to go to a different country because in the Premier League for the last two or three seasons this is not the case.
“Three or four years ago it was a completely different game.”
In other words, if you don’t like corners, you might need to update your expectations. Or change leagues. Or build a wall around the pitch like in 5-a-side, so the ball never goes out of play.