Arsenal's set-piece precision shows value of dead ball situations in modern era

With the Women's Super League on a two-week break, Sky Sports columnist Laura Hunter tackles talking points from the latest Premier League matches, including this season's set-piece revolution, troubles at Man City and an upturn in the red half of Manchester.

Time to ditch set-piece snobbery

Before Super Sunday, Everton were the only team yet to concede from a set-piece in the Premier League. Given the prolificacy of set-piece goals this season that fact is impressive. What followed in a 3-0 defeat to Thomas Frank's Tottenham, though, was Micky van de Ven tucking away twice from corners.

It would seem no team is immune to the set-piece phenomenon sweeping through the league.

This is not a radically new idea. And it's a matter of personal preference as to whether this development is having a positive or negative effect on entertainment value. Fashion isn't always about aesthetics. Sometimes it's about practicality. If the best wearing pair of jeans only look good on the hanger, then really they serve no purpose at all.

19 per cent of all English top-flight goals this season have come via corners (45/241), the highest proportion ever in a Premier League campaign. Arsenal are the masters of this art. Gabriel is so effective, in fact, Jamie Carragher has called him the "most influential player in the league" right now.

It's true that Mikel Arteta has got his team delivering machine-like efficiency. Arsenal have scored 11 goals via set pieces this season, two more than any other side (Chelsea are second on nine). 69 per cent of goals scored in 2025/26, in fact, have come via set pieces (11/16). Arteta's squad has been assembled with physicality and power purposefully to operate in such a way. But they are not the only ones.

Brentford have made the long throw their party piece, scoring eight times via that method since the season began. Michael Kayode catapults the ball into the mixer and asks a team-mate to make first contact. That bit is fundamental. And then it's about who reacts quickest. At the weekend it was Dango Ouattara to spark a 3-2 victory over reigning champions Liverpool. Every side are susceptible to this type of threat if it's choreographed well enough.

If only Tony Pulis' Stoke side were alive and kicking to relish in this era.

Romanticists might call this evolution boring, but it's actually initiating a levelling out of the league. Bournemouth, who have used set-piece threat to good effect five times this season, are second in the table. Spurs, boasting the same success rate from dead ball situations, are third.

Frank has long been an advocate of the benefits of set-piece ability because it offers realistic marginal gains. It's a product of dedicated training ground practice. When pass-heavy football was all the rage it was less transferable because far fewer players, often costing huge sums, have the specialist talent to play that way. They were ring-fenced for the top clubs.

The formula is equally true of both ends of the table. Those teams who concede from set-pieces most regularly - Nottingham Forest and West Ham, both 10 - are 18th and 19th respectively. There is little point in resisting or ignoring the shift. "If you're not doing it, you look like a bit of a dinosaur as a coach," said Jamie Redknapp on Super Sunday.

This new, or perhaps just elevated, manuscript is here to stay. And if you can't beat 'em, you might as well join 'em.

Where has Man City's identity gone?

When Manchester City were the Premier League's most potent emerging force in the early 2010s, before Pep Guardiola, managers at the very top of the game criticised City's lack of clear identity. Carlo Ancelotti, when at Chelsea, once said City had "skill and ability" but were "not a team".

Not once has that ever been said of a side under Guardiola's charge - not in any part of Europe. Not at Barcelona, not at Bayern Munich and never previously at Manchester City - until now. The scars from last year's well-documented meltdown are having a lasting effect on Pep's newly-shaped squad. And it's unclear exactly what they stand for.

City's most recent defeat to Aston Villa - their third of the season - was indicative of a side caught between the style change that has glorified set-pieces over pretty passing patterns. Pep has publicly professed to want to embrace what he calls "modern football" but a lot of the ideas go against the fibres of what made him so famously successful at every club he's managed. He was the ultimate philosophy coach.

Gary Neville has been critical of this recent erosion. "Man City aren't even good to watch any more," he said on this week's podcast. "They look like they can be beat in any game of football. The play is like a hybrid between direct, old Pep in terms of passing, a bit scruffy - I'm not quite sure what it is."

This period of flux is evidently difficult to control for a perfectionist manager. Guardiola is not going to be enlisting the long throw any time soon. City are actually the only Premier League side yet to score from a set-piece this season, which gives an indication of just how seriously, or not, Pep has welcomed these new rules of engagement.

Their latest downfall was engineered by a brilliantly worked Matty Cash strike, and it came from a corner.

It was City's first loss since August, and just the second time they've failed to score all season, but their repeated predictability has meant falling short far more times than is necessary to seriously challenge for the Premier League crown.

Guardiola blamed "the last action", needing "to shoot better or to cross better," but really it was a lack of ideas that cost. And if City aren't strangulating teams in possession like they once were - keeping the ball in such a methodical way that opposition sides got fed up of chasing - then what exactly are they doing?

Being more direct with fast wingers is ok if you have got the physicality to cope when play breaks down and City without Rodri, arguably, do not. They won just 42 per cent of ground duels at Villa Park. Not for the first time, Unai Emery got his tactical setup spot on.

Back to the drawing board for Pep, then. City need a new plan B.

Man Utd show promise - but it comes with a warning

In case you didn't hear over the weekend, and you would have to live under a rock not to, Manchester United have won three consecutive Premier League games in the same season for the first time since February 2024. Ruben Amorim is nothing if not persistent, and his will has finally been rewarded.

As he himself noted in the press room at Old Trafford after making a comfortable win over Brighton look difficult, though, a sense of "suffering" seems to surround Man Utd before any positive outcome is reached.

Only they can comprehensively beat a team while simultaneously seeming like they survived a major scare. How can a performance so assured coincide with one so fraught with nervousness? Perhaps we will never know. This seems to be Amorim's brand and for now it's working.

What is clear and admirable about this version of Man Utd, which is all the more tangible when you watch from the terraces of Old Trafford, is how devoted the players are to the manager's cause. "The players really like Amorim," Neville said over the weekend. "He's authentic and honest. The players want to do well for him."

Bruno Fernandes in a sacrificial midfield role, Amad at wing-back, and Luke Shaw's willingness to slot into a back three are all evidence of the buy-in. The stars of this latest triumph, however, were undoubtedly Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo - recruited to fit a style that is starting to show promise.

While Pep's might be lost in the post, Amorim has got the modern football memo. This is not a side who are going to dazzle with intricate build-up, but can clearly sustain threat with fast, direct play that puts Cunha and Mbeumo at the heart of each attacking phase.

Cunha's opener was also evidence of his maverick quality, which is helpful too. Since the start of last season no player has scored more times from outside the box than him (seven).

"We feel like we can solve anything," Amorim said with a smile on Saturday, later revealing he enjoyed the performance against Brighton better than beating Liverpool the week prior. "It was more complete," he added. Some semblance of coherence is certainly building but Amorim was right to caveat his excitement with realism.

Trips to Nottingham Forest and Tottenham in consecutive weeks will stress-test just how much progress has really been made.