A corner turned for how the Premier League is played – and what it means

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Arsenal ’s win over Chelsea confirmed that there have already been more set-piece goals this season than in the entirety of the last campaign. There are clear reasons for that rise, from tactical evolution to calendar congestion, as the game’s powerbrokers weigh up what it means – not just for “the product”, but for how this increasingly unpredictable season will ultimately be decided.

For all of the discussion around set-pieces, and what almost seems to be a moral debate about how football should be played, there have been moments when Arsenal have embraced the perception. The squad have come in after some wins singing a particular fan chant: “Set piece again, ole ole.”

That wasn’t quite the case after the 2-1 win over Chelsea , which keeps them top of the table by five points, albeit with a game more played than Manchester City . Instead, there was a sense of resolve.

The match might not have been the most aesthetically enrapturing, but it was absorbing – precisely because of the tension from the title race.

These are the two sides of the Premier League right now: holding in the box, but still holding attention.

This is about much more than Arsenal , after all. As the team that have scored most from set-pieces, and duly lead the table, they merely typify a trend.

That trend is certainly difficult to dispute now. Set-piece centrality is more than a tactical fad, as has been discussed in this newsletter already this season. The last week alone represents an extreme.

As early as Monday, we had the rugby lineout-style jostling that characterised Manchester United’s 1-0 win at Everton . By Sunday evening, and those three strikes at Arsenal , it was confirmed that this season has already seen more set-piece goals than the entirety of 2024-25 – and that with a quarter of the campaign still left to play.

There is a distinctive reason for this, but also some indication it’s a bit overplayed. Some of the images are unedifying. Put simply, you would much rather watch matches replete with skill and creativity rather than groups of players huddling together in the area while grappling. Through balls over throw-ins, individual brilliance over in-swinging corners.

Such scenes stand out all the more when you consider the billions of expenditure, and Thursday’s giddy talk about “Premflix” in Singapore, as well as the sense of a “product” that just keeps selling itself.

And yet it was only 24 hours before Arsenal’s crucial win – with set-pieces central – that the discussion revolved around a sensational set of Saturday 3pm games. Vintage Premier League ; maximum chaos.

How couldn’t it? Jordan Pickford secured a 3-2 away win for Everton with a magnificent match-winning save, amid an increasingly erratic season for Newcastle United. Meanwhile, Burnley 3-4 Brentford was utter mayhem, although the pedantic, VAR-dominated way it ended also played into a theme.

By the same token, Arsenal-Chelsea was the marquee Sunday match, so ended up shaping a lot of impressions. A huge factor in the game playing out how it did, however, was simply because these are two highly tactical coaches in what has been a highly intense calendar. It is somewhat inevitable that such games are going to be won on the margins.

Hence Liam Rosenior’s frustration at his team’s errors in that area – albeit with some gripes about the officiating. The Chelsea manager didn’t call them “marking assignments” this time, but admitted it is something he has to get more up to speed on. His team are at least good at attacking set-pieces, which is indicative.

This trend has been accentuated by the fact that club analysts have all realised there is still significant “opportunity” in “restarts”.

After years when the positional game – in other words, Pep Guardiola’s ideology – dictated that it was strategically more advantageous to keep possession and play short corners, it is now seen as one of those areas where new attacking approaches have outpaced defensive responses. There is a mismatch, which probably means this is going to continue in some form for some time. The probabilities have changed.

Approaches have changed with it. Look at Liverpool, who made it seven set-pieces in a row this weekend to also make it three wins on the spin – the second-best run in the Premier League at the moment.

That came after a summer when the club hierarchy decided to specifically lean into individual creativity when many rivals pivoted towards other collective approaches and set-pieces. Those individuals have nevertheless had adjustment issues, though.

And if you cannot beat them…

Mikel Arteta would, of course, insist that he himself is a disciple of the positional game, but that augmenting the ideology with set-pieces is itself a counter-response to deep defences. Liverpool might have found that against West Ham United. Arteta was meanwhile quick to point out after the Chelsea win that “we haven’t scored set-pieces for a few weeks now, but we scored so many in open play – today was an option”.

Much more relevant than such a pre-emptive argument might have been the Basque’s explanation for why they ceded so much play to Chelsea late on. “To train game context in those scenarios is becoming really difficult because we don’t have time to train.”

This is by now an increasingly worn argument, but it is always worth repeating. As the football calendar continues to demand more and more commitment, something has to give. That is naturally going to be high-quality general play.

This is what the game’s stakeholders are not getting. This is what greedy club leaderships are not getting.

Time and space to properly train at elite level is the cost of so much calendar congestion.

Other stakeholders are conscious, though. The weekend’s IFAB meeting showed lawmakers want to eliminate such grappling from the game, amid the introduction of time limits.

The Premier League is expected to assess this for next season, although some club figures already point out there was supposed to be a crackdown this season.

They are conscious of “the product”.

And there is another point to be made – that other side that some stakeholders also do not get. For all the attempt to position football as an “entertainment product”, it has never been that. It is something unique, which is also why it has never been just “a business”. So much is driven by deep emotional investment, regardless of what events on the pitch actually look like. You can throw up a dour 0-0 draw and people keep coming back for other reasons.

So it is with this season. Some of the football is underwhelming, but the storylines may yet be off the scale.

We have already got the title race. The Champions League race is now increasingly charged, especially after Manchester United and Liverpool gathered pace just as Aston Villa dropped points – and Chelsea try to figure out where they are.

Almost the entire mid-table can dream of Europe, with clubs like Brentford and Bournemouth maybe enjoying historic opportunities. There is then the relegation battle, which is really looking like it is going to involve a storyline on the scale of Tottenham Hotspur’s battle for survival.

And all of this while the football has not been all that.

There is evidently no set way of doing this.

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