Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta is confident his team will rediscover their magic touch from set-pieces after their recent fallow patch.
Opposition teams appeared to have no answer earlier in the season to the dead-ball routines employed by Arteta’s side under the direction of set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, but lately they have been far less prolific.
They travel to Old Trafford to face Manchester United on Sunday knowing a win is essential if they are to keep alive their increasingly faint hopes of catching Premier League leaders Liverpool.
Aiming for history 👀
Check out the record we can break at Old Trafford on Sunday 👇
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) March 7, 2025
The game against United at the Emirates Stadium earlier in the campaign produced two goals from corners as Arsenal ran out comfortable 2-0 winners, when the team’s dead-ball powers were seemingly at their peak.
They have struggled for goals more generally since Christmas, though there were encouraging signs of a corner having been turned in Tuesday’s 7-1 walloping of PSV Eindhoven that ended a two-game scoreless run.
Asked what was holding them back lately from punishing teams at set-pieces, Arteta answered: “Various reasons. In some of the games we generated a lot of situations and chances, in others we haven’t been at our level.
“Sometimes it’s the delivery, sometimes it’s the timing, sometimes the execution. Then something that plays a big part is the opposition. They know how to defend, they are prepared very well for that because they know it is a big threat of ours.
“We did very well two or three days ago (at PSV), we did well against (Nottingham) Forest. It will come, but we have to be very persistent.”
Arsenal have been hampered by the absence of Bukayo Saka, whose delivery at corners had been one of their most effective weapons prior to his getting injured.
“That’s another (factor),” said Arteta. “When you have it from both sides, that level of consistency and quality, it helps.
“Scoring from set-pieces is never a flat line that you are going to maintain. It should not regenerate frustration.”
Victory in Eindhoven set a record for the biggest ever away win in the knockout stages of the Champions League.
However, it is domestically where a lack of fire power has threatened to derail their ambitions, and having collected one point from their last two leagues games – drawing blanks in both – Liverpool have been allowed to open up a perhaps unassailable 13-point lead.
Arteta warned his side could expect a very different challenge on Sunday to the one which failed to materialise in the Netherlands.
“I hope we can replicate that (goalscoring),” he added. “Understanding why you score the goals and can you consistently provide those moments, those situations as often as possible to increase the probably of it happening again. That’s what we have to do.
“We know that Sunday is going to be a very different game. We are very clear on that.
“We want to keep the momentum going, but we’re going to have to be really good to earn the right to do that. We know historically as well how tough it is to win there.”
