Winning is Fine, But Not Like That
Arsenal score too many goals from set pieces. It’s cynical. It’s not proper football. Wins feel hollow. Something something Arsène Wenger would be disappointed. If a team is exclusively reliant on set pieces, ignores open play entirely, and builds their whole identity around dead ball situations, that’s a legitimate tactical concern. It suggests fragility, raises questions about sustainability. That’s a real conversation.
That is not the conversation about Arsenal FC. The conversation is whether Arsenal would be popular Premier League champions. Corner kicks have been part of the game since 1872. Free kicks even longer. And yet somewhere between tiki-taka going mainstream and the rise of tactical YouTube, set pieces quietly became the thing serious football people weren’t supposed to talk about too enthusiastically.
In 2025-26, a Premier League record 25% of all goals have come from corners alone. Total set piece goals excluding penalties account for 27.8% of all goals; well above the 21.7% average across the last decade [1]. The trend line is unambiguous: set pieces made up 19.8% of Premier League goals in 2023, rising to 20.6% in 2024, and hitting 25% in 2025-26 [2]. It’s a structural shift in how the game is being played and coached.
When did mastering a third of the game become a moral failing? Exactly when we score 2 more than 15 goals from set pieces in a season. Why 15? Liverpool (2021-22), Manchester City (2021-22), Manchester City (2011-12), Manchester City (2009-10), Manchester United (2012-13), Manchester United (2007-08) [4]. Two of Pep Guardiola’s title-winning City sides, three of Sir Alex Ferguson’s best United teams, and a Liverpool squad most people remember fondly.
What Arsenal Are Actually Doing
In the current Premier League season, over a third of Arsenal’s goals have come from set pieces — a higher percentage than any title-winning side in the competition’s history. Manchester United’s 2007-08 champions, at 27.5%, are the closest comparison [5]. This is not hoofing it and hoping. This is a system that requires coordinated movement, precise delivery, specific blocking assignments, and weeks of repetitive training to execute under pressure. The same people calling it cynical would describe a pressing structure as “high energy” and a positional system as “sophisticated”.
But Can They Actually Score In Open Play?
But they don’t score in open play! Arsenal have scored 41 open play goals in the Premier League this season. Only Liverpool and Manchester City have scored more in open play.
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The broader context matters too. The Premier League has averaged just 1.8 open play goals per game this season; the lowest rate since 2009-10, when the figure was 1.76. Arsenal are at 1.08. Only seven campaigns in Premier League history have averaged fewer [6]. Arsenal aren’t uniquely reluctant to score from open play. The whole league is finding it harder.
The Real Reason People Are Complaining
When a team finds a consistent edge and exploits it relentlessly, the losing side has two options: adapt, or reframe the loss as a values problem. The second option is much easier and requires no tactical adjustment whatsoever. You just declare that winning this way doesn’t really count, and suddenly the result carries an asterisk you invented yourself.
We’ve seen this before. Tiki-taka was “boring, no goals.” Low block defending was “parking the bus”. High pressing was “kick and run”. Five at the back was “cowardly”. Every time a team finds something that works, a portion of football’s discourse machine decides that that specific thing is actually against the spirit of the sport.
The Logical Endpoint
If the argument is that set piece goals are somehow worth less, we should follow that logic to its conclusion. Disallow corner routines. Cap the number of free kicks a team can score from per season. Award bonus points for goals that come from sustained open play build-up, minimum eight passes, at least two overlapping runs, finish with the weaker foot.
OR
We accept that football rewards teams who are organized, well-coached, and willing to prepare seriously for every available route to goal. Arsenal aren’t gaming the system. They’ve just done their homework. And apparently some people find homework deeply offensive. If your main criticism of a team is that they score goals too effectively, you may need to sit with that for a moment.
References
[1] bet365 News. Arsenal’s Set Piece Dominance in Europe Since 2023-24. news.bet365.com.
[2] The Non-League Football Paper / bet365 News. Set Piece Goal Percentage Trend 2023–2026.
[3] Sky Sports Between the Lines. How Arsenal’s Set Piece Operation Works. skysports.com.
[4] Benson, R. Arsenal Most Goals From Corners Premier League Season Record. Opta Analyst, theanalyst.com.
[5] ESPN / Opta. Arsenal Set Piece Goals as Percentage of Total — Historical Comparison. espn.com.
[6] Benson, R. Arsenal Wouldn’t Be Popular Premier League Champions, But Success Will Be Vindication for Mikel Arteta. Opta Analyst, theanalyst.com.
By: Sandipani Basu / @professorscam
Featured Image: @GabFoligno / Neal Simpson / Allstar / Getty Images