Arsenal's not so secret weapon has been blunted by Premier League's latest trend

Goals have been celebrated less passionately. It was the second minute of added time in Arsenal's draw away to Chelsea earlier this month and Nicolas Jover, like a coiled spring, leapt from his seat on the bench to immediately high-five an excited Mikel Arteta.

The Gunners had earned their third corner of the game and Martin Odegaard drifted over to take it. This was Jover’s latest chance to underline why he is on the big bucks and Arteta, quite deliberately, stepped aside.

The set piece coach, taking centre stage, waved and pointed like an orchestra conductor, imploring Arsenal ’s players to take up very specific positions.

Odegaard played the corner short - a rarity - and William Saliba was then flagged offside as a high-intensity, mid-quality encounter ended 1-1.

Still, it underlined further how important Jover has become to Arsenal’s identity.

After September’s North London derby win, Arteta hailed him as “the best in his field” and several players have raved about his precise planning.

Last season Arsenal scored 22 set piece goals in the league, with a joint-record 16 of those coming from corners, and their towering cast have reaped the rewards of scheming that carries plenty of similarities with American football and basketball.

Early in Saturday’s destruction of Nottingham Forest it looked like another set piece goal had arrived when Odegaard whipped in a free kick for Mikel Merino to head down and Jurrien Timber bundled home - only for it to be ruled out for a marginal offside.

But Arsenal remain on four for the league campaign so far - tied with 10 other sides - and they have scored one in the Champions League ahead of Tuesday’s trip to Sporting Lisbon.

So is the novelty beginning to wear off for the not so secret weapon?

It is not that Arsenal are no longer outstanding from set pieces. It is simply a case of the rest having upped their game.

The recent sight of Bournemouth players rushing to celebrate a successful corner routine with their specialist Shaun Cooper away to Brentford, the team credited with spawning the trend by giving starts to Jover and Chelsea’s Bernardo Cueva, indicated the importance being placed elsewhere.

Fulham, meanwhile, are the solitary side yet to find the net from a set piece this season.

Fancy a guess at the player who has created more shots from dead ball situations? Andreas Pereira, whose 25 is five more than Odegaard (who has been injured), Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice combined.

For several years the Premier League average for set piece goals has hovered around 20% (with a high of 28.5% in 2010/11). Last season it was 19.8% (247 from 1,246) and so far in this campaign it has dropped slightly to 18.9% (65 from 343).

The specialist coaches are also working tirelessly on how to deal with threats, which goes a long way to explaining numbers being cancelled out.

Every time Arsenal face a corner Jover is up and about, too - although a third of Arsenal’s league concessions so far in 24/25 have also come from set pieces.