Why have Arsenal stopped scoring from set-pieces?

Football writer Alex Keble assesses why Arsenal have scored fewer goals from set-plays recently and whether Bukayo Saka's absence is to blame.

When Arsenal beat Manchester United 2-0 in early December with two set-piece goals, it looked like a return to normality after a less-than-perfect start to the 2024/25 season.

So dominant had Arsenal been from set-pieces over the previous 18 months that Mikel Arteta began publicly accepting comparisons to Tony Pulis’s Stoke City as a compliment.

Set-pieces were the Gunners' main route to goal, it seemed; a weapon that, thanks to set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, got them over the line when all else failed.

And so this weekend’s reverse fixture at Old Trafford should, in theory, be a repeat of December.

After all, Man Utd have conceded 13 goals from corners across all competitions this season, more than any other Premier League team.

But Arsenal’s league form has wilted just as their effectiveness from set-pieces has diminished.

Once their most reliable weapon, set-piece goals have dried up: Arsenal have not scored from a dead-ball situation in any of their last six Premier League matches or 10 matches in all competitions.

Arsenal goals from set-pieces

Two months ago that would have been inconceivable: 10 matches and 22 goals – including seven at PSV Eindhoven in the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday night – and not a single corner or free-kick situation ending with the ball in the net.

Here, we take a look at why that might be.

Arsenal still the set-piece leaders

Even with the recent dip, Arsenal are league leaders in the field.

In 2023/24, they topped the Premier League charts for set-piece goals with 20 and shots from set-pieces with 202, although they finished fourth in the table for set-piece Expected Goals (xG) with 14.9.

This season, the xG figure is higher - their set-piece xG is a table-topping 13.0 - but everything else is down slightly. Arsenal are now ranking third for set-piece goals (12) and fifth for set-piece shots (105).

Arsenal set-piece stats and Premier League ranking 

*Excluding penalties

But the Gunners have only under-performed compared to last season because of a sharp reduction in set-piece output since the 2-2 draw with Aston Villa on 12 January.

When we look at the underlying numbers behind Arsenal’s six-match barren spell, we can see that it isn’t just finishing chances that’s the problem.

The table below shows that until six Premier League matches ago, Arsenal were scoring in line with their Expected Goals, whereas more recently they have been creating a lower xG and still under-performing it, despite overall taking more shots from set-pieces.

Arsenal set-piece stats before/after Matchweek 22

*Excluding penalties

When we break it down further and look at corners, it’s a similar theme – with one key difference. 

In the first 21 matches of the season, corners accounted for most of Arsenal’s set-piece xG: they averaged 0.53 from dead-balls, and 0.47 of this was following a corner.

But in the last six matches, only half of their 0.3 set-piece xG follows a corner (0.15). The conclusion is clear: Arsenal are not as good as they were at attacking corners.

Arsenal corner stats before/after Matchweek 22

Is Saka’s absence the reason for the reduction?

Since Arsenal’s number of corners hasn’t gone down over the last six matches, the most likely explanation is the same old story with their season: injuries.

Bukayo Saka is Arsenal’s first-choice corner taker from the right but he has not played for the Gunners since 21 December.

Five of the 10 corner assists Arsenal have accumulated in the Premier League this season have been from Saka.

So, that’s 50 per cent of the output gone with that one injury, and with 70 per cent of Arsenal’s total coming from that right side (the injured Gabriel Martinelli and Ethan Nwaneri each have one corner assist) it’s no wonder Arteta’s team are scoring fewer goals from set-pieces.

If we split Arsenal’s set-pieces into before and after Saka’s injury, we can see just how much their output has fallen, with their goals tally halving since he’s been out.

Arsenal set-piece stats before/after Saka injury

Impact of other injuries

The absence of other forwards can’t have helped the situation.

Arsenal have been without Kai Havertz and Martinelli since the win at Leicester City, limiting their attacking options to Raheem Sterling, Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard: three players very unlikely to score from dead-balls.

And while Arsenal’s goals from corners this season have not been scored by forwards, as the below table shows, the presence of elite forwards in the box – particularly the imposing Havertz – is likely to provide the distraction to opposition defenders that allows others, such as centre-backs Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba, to score.

Arsenal's goalscorers from corners 2024/25

Opposition defences aware of the weapon

Another possible factor is opponents getting wise to Arsenal’s ideas and defending the corners better.

Jover will be coming up with new ideas all the time, but the fundamental tactic of multiple Arsenal players gathering in a group at the back post and then moving at the last moment must have lost the surprise factor by now.

Recent opponents Leicester (121), Wolverhampton Wanderers (115) and West Ham United (109) are in the top five for most shots conceded from set-pieces, yet even they were able to stop Arsenal scoring that way. In Europe, PSV and Dinamo Zagreb managed it too, albeit in their respective 7-1 and 3-0 defeats.

The fact that even leaky defences did not succumb to an Arsenal set-piece suggests that opponents are no longer shaken by Jover’s ideas, although that could easily change once Saka is back fizzing perfect crosses into the six-yard box.