Blocking, decoys and brute force: How Arsenal unleash Gabriel at corners

As Arsenal continue to shine from set-pieces, Oliver Hopkins of Opta Analyst assesses why they get so much success - and how defender Gabriel is playing a starring role. 

Since the start of last season, Arsenal have scored more goals from corners than any other team in the Premier League. And it's not even close.

Another weekend, another Gunners goal from a corner. That sentence could have been written at any point across the last two seasons, but we should not let the regularity of Arsenal’s set-piece excellence detract us from the excellence itself. 

Four days after crashing in a header against Sporting CP, Gabriel was at it again. Darting to the near post, the Brazilian met Bukayo Saka’s corner with a stooping header to open the scoring against West Ham United. 

It was the 20th goal that Arsenal have scored from a corner in the Premier League since the start of last season, five more than any other side in that span. 

Goals from corners since start of 2023/24

Five of those 20 goals have been scored by Gabriel. Only one other Arsenal player has scored more than once from a corner in that time - William Saliba with two - while Gabriel's five goals are the most scored by any player in the division.

Arsenal's set-piece specialist 

All of Gabriel's goals have been headers, and all but one of them has been created by the left boot of Saka. It’s a combination that continues to work wonders for Arsenal and their set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.

Jover, who joined in 2021 from Manchester City, has overseen a set-piece revolution at Arsenal. The Gunners have been especially deadly in the last season and a half from corners, but they lead the league for corner goals since his arrival too, with 46 overall.

The natural question that follows is why. How are they getting so much success?

Well, let’s look at how Arsenal set up from attacking corners, as they have established a pretty fruitful formula.

Firstly, let's talk about delivery. Arsenal’s corners are almost exclusively inswingers. With Saka from the right and Declan Rice from the left, they have two exceptional dead-ball takers who can whip the ball in with pace and dip.

As the below graphic shows, 96 per cent of Arsenal’s crossed corners are inswingers. Only Brentford, another side known for their set-piece prowess, have a higher proportion with 98 per cent.

Rarely going short 

What’s also illuminating is how rarely Arsenal ever take a short corner. At just five per cent, they take a lower percentage of their corners short than any team in the league.

That’s a massive contrast to teams like Tottenham Hotspur (36.6 per cent) and Manchester City (33.9 per cent), despite all three sides wanting to dominate possession.

Arsenal know how dangerous they are from crosses and almost never waste an opportunity to send the ball into the box.

The second thing to mention from the above example against West Ham is that Arsenal tend to start with a crowd of bodies at the back post. These players then rush to central areas as the corner is taken.

There are two ways to defend that. Either, as West Ham tried to do this weekend, you attempt to man-mark Arsenal’s players and follow them into the box.

Or, as Nottingham Forest did earlier in the season, you mark zonally and ignore the runners.

Either way, those runners move centrally, intentionally crowding the opposition’s six-yard box.

Arsenal pack the opposition’s six-yard box at corners with more bodies than any other team (3.8 players on average). Those players then obviously need to be marked, which means the defending team need to pack the six-yard box, too, inadvertently adding to the growing crowd around their own goalkeeper. Arsenal’s opponents average more players in the six-yard box per corner (6.7) than any other team.

The crowd of bodies limits the ability of the opposition goalkeeper to come and punch the ball, prevents defenders from getting a clear run at the ball to clear, and causes general chaos.

Creating penalty-box problems

With that plan set, then comes Arsenal’s (not-so) secret weapon: Gabriel. He’s the main target at almost every single corner and is the one player given licence to change his starting position so as to build up momentum.

It is then the job of Arsenal’s other players to try and isolate Gabriel. They are more there to act as decoys and/or blockers than anything else. Still, it’s a job that requires some craft.

For Gabriel’s chance against Forest, four players run into the box and block their markers. That prevents anyone from getting out to Gabriel, who is left all alone at the far post.

For his most recent goal against West Ham, Jurrien Timber eases Lucas Paqueta under the ball at the near post, ensuring the Brazilian cannot clear his lines. This was a move that Timber was perhaps lucky to get away with.

For Gabriel’s winner against Spurs, Ben White and Saliba combine the ideas of blocking with crowding the six-yard box to great effect.

Neither of them has any intention of challenging for the ball, but instead they get into positions right in front of Guglielmo Vicario, blocking off James Maddison and Micky van de Ven respectively, as well as preventing Vicario from claiming. Gabriel has lost his marker and has a free header just six yards out.

What shouldn’t be discounted in all of this is Gabriel’s ability and hunger to attack the ball in the box. He is so explosive and times his runs so well that even if his run is tracked, he’s able to use his physicality to get on the end of the cross.

Even when that doesn’t result in a direct effort on goal, it can be disruptive and effective – as shown by him winning Arsenal’s second penalty against West Ham when Lukasz Fabianski ending up punching him in the face rather than the ball.

Southampton even tried double-teaming him from corners in their game at Emirates Stadium, but Gabriel had the ability to fight through that.

His ability to get his head on the ball from corners is remarkable. No player in the division has made more than Gabriel’s 11 first contacts at attacking corners, while only Everton’s James Tarkowski has won a higher proportion of first balls from his team's attacking corners – and Everton have had 25 fewer than Arsenal.

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand has likened Gabriel’s hunger to win the ball in the box to his team-mate Nemanja Vidic. Gabriel certainly shares the same fearlessness and the same single-mindedness to win the ball at all costs.

Top PL players for connecting with attacking corners 24/25

Gabriel is a fantastic out-and-out defender, but the goals he adds makes him one of the league’s most valuable centre-backs. Since his debut in the competition in September 2020, he’s scored 17 Premier League goals, the most of any defender.

Across that time, just four Arsenal players have scored more goals (Saka, Martin Odegaard, Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz) and only the first three in that list have scored more winning goals than Gabriel.

Arsenal will need to string together a long winning run if they are to overhaul Liverpool’s nine-point gap at the top of the Premier League table. That’ll mean winning games where perhaps they are not at their most fluent, attacking best. Set-pieces are a brilliant way of doing that.

Since the start of last season, Arsenal have scored nine game-winning goals from set-pieces: that’s two more than anyone else in the division over that time.

In a title race where they simply cannot afford to drop many more points, continuing their efficiency from corners is a necessity.

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