Perception versus Reality

Morning.

Perception is an odd thing. Stuff was being discussed in the Arses yesterday, which is obviously the point of a comment section, and the idea that Arsenal as an attacking team haven’t really, properly clicked this season came up. It’s one I tend to agree with, to be honest.

When you look at the numbers of our forward players in the Premier League, they’re far from brilliant. Leandro Trossard hasn’t scored since December 30th in the 4-1 win over Aston Villa, and in his last 10 games has made just 1 assist. It took Noni Madueke until January 31st to score his first goal in the Premier League. Bukayo Saka has one goal in his last 13 games, with 4 assists to his name in that period. Gabriel Martinelli’s only goal came back in September, when he produced that great late equaliser against Man City. 5 of Eberechi Eze’s 6 goals have come in two North London derbies. Viktor Gyokeres has 5 in his last 6, by some distance the best ‘form’ of any of our forwards, but his level of involvement still fluctuates a bit too much for me.

Kai Havertz has been injured for most of the season, and in the 14 games since he returned from injury, Gabriel Jesus has scored twice, each time the 4th goal in a game in which he came off the bench late. He scored in the 78th minute of our 4-1 win over Villa and in the 86th of the 4-0 win at Leeds. So, I don’t think the perception that our attack has under-performed is unreasonable at all. There is, in my opinion, considerable room for improvement.

Reality: Arsenal have scored more goals than any other team in the Premier League this season. We’re currently on top of the table with 58 in the goals for column, with Man City on 57, and Manchester United next best on 50. Does that make anyone who harbours concerns about our goalscoring feel better? Of course, it’s not just attackers who can score, but obviously the greatest amount of focus is on them.

Our top goalscorers in the league as of March 3rd 2026:

• Viktor Gyokeres – 10
• Eberechi Eze – 6
• Martin Zubimendi – 5
• Bukayo Saka – 5
• Leandro Trossard – 5
• Declan Rice – 4
• Mikel Merino – 4
• Jurrien Timber – 3
• Gabriel – 3
• Noni Madueke – 2

Maybe another way to frame it is with this question: Does it matter who scores the goals, as long as you score enough goals to win enough games? The answer is no, but as long as you have an area of your team that isn’t quite delivering at the level you’d expect – and I think that’s certainly true in terms of raw numbers with most of our attackers – it will sow the seeds of doubt in your mind.

Perception: Arsenal are responsible for the current ‘mayhem’ with set-pieces.

That’s certainly how it seems. It’s as if there’s a referendum on corners every time we score. As I said in yesterday’s blog, I think there’s an element of snobbery to an extent, because the reality is we score a lot because we’re really, really good at them. Mikel Arteta and his staff correctly identified a growing trend in football, paid proper attention to it, and became the best team in the world at maximising an element of the game which gives you a very decent chance of scoring a goal.

For me, I connect this directly to the opening day of the Premier League season 2021-22 season when we began the campaign away to Brentford. Leave aside the fact that Arsenal were ravaged with Covid related absences that day, and forget the fact that Neville and Carragher made eejits of themselves dancing with the home fans (and sticking the knife into Ben White on his Arsenal debut) after we lost 2-0.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that since then we’ve hired two set-piece coaches who have worked at Brentford in Andreas Georgson and Nicolas Jover, and to be very fair to Arteta, you might even say his radar was pinging well before that because he was responsible for Man City’s hiring of Jover in 2019 when he worked there under Pep Guardiola.

But, that night, Arsenal were tormented by Brentford’s set-pieces, one of their goals involved a six-yard box scrum that saw Bernd Leno get bumped out of the way for them to score. Here’s what I wrote in the blog the next morning:

A long throw came in, Leno was absolutely being fouled by a Brentford player, but it was also weak goalkeeping. I do think the two things can be true. We let the ball bounce, they headed it in, and if you had flashbacks of a team playing in red and white stripes scoring goals from long throws against a timid Arsenal defence, you’re not alone. It was Stats Stoke, as Andrew Allen described it.

It might have taken some time, but I’m absolutely convinced that was a moment for Arteta. Firstly, to build a team that could withstand that kind of approach, which is easier said than done, but also one that could inflict that kind of pain on others. Fast forward to now, and welcome to the set-piece discourse. We’re not immune from conceding a set-piece goal, as the games against Chelsea this season have shown, and our recent visit to Brentford saw them score from a long throw after a game in which their set-pieces and approach to them caused chaos every time. I didn’t read any think pieces about possible rule changes then, but maybe it’s ok for a team with more limited resources to do what they did, whereas a ‘richer’ team like Arsenal ought to be above it (I obviously don’t agree with that, you don’t get extra points for style).

However, nobody scores more than we do. If there’s ever a Mikel Arteta/set-pieces origin story, that game against Brentford is the opening scene, and from the rubble of that emerged the power-house you see today. Arteta understood the need to, as he put it, be the best at every aspect of the game. Compare and contrast to a former Sp*rs manager who said of set-pieces: “I’m just not interested in it. I never have been. I don’t see it as an issue.”

Arsenal raised the bar, and when that happens, others follow. Again, I will say I prefer other aspects of the game more than corners etc, but this is very much a case of keeping up with the Joneses. You either get with it, or you get beaten. I understand some of the focus on how there’s so much wrestling and grappling in the penalty area, but I also think the increased tactical and organisational level of the league has generally made scoring open play goals more challenging than it used to be, so a consequence of that is increased focus on set-pieces.

Arsenal used to be criticised all the time for playing lovely football but possessing too much of a soft-centre. Now, having addressed that frailty, and probably swapping out the loveliness for cold, hard tactical pragmatism, we still get criticised. You can’t win, unless of course you win, and so far no team has won more Premier League games than Arsenal. Is it always the most enjoyable? No. But you won’t hear me complain come the end of the season if it continues like this.

Football has always been a game of trends, and set-pieces etc is one which is very much in the spotlight now. I don’t know if they’ll change the rules, or issue some new edict which will see it change, but inevitably, teams will find solutions, and coaches and managers will have to innovate again. That’s just how it goes, but until that point, the perception that this is just an Arsenal problem is unfair. Every team does it, because every team has to do it. If you ignore it, you lose, and managers lose their jobs.

We’re just better at it than anyone else, and some people don’t like it – primarily because we’re top of the table with a collection of attackers who aren’t delivering at the level they’re capable of. Mad, eh?

Till tomorrow.

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