Not for the first time, there is panic in the Manchester United defence. Bukayo Saka is walking towards the corner and Nicolas Jover is positioned on the touchline. Rasmus Hojlund is clinging onto William Saliba as if he is reaching for a log while tumbling down a rapidly moving river. The Emirates senses the opportunity and understands what is happening: there is a queue of towering Arsenal players stationed at the back post and the United defenders are wearing expressions of grave concern. Suddenly, in a box of moving shadows, danger lay around every corner, every decoy a potential target.
Seconds later, Ruben Amorim was in the dugout rubbing his face, as what should have been a cohesive, organised block unravelled into strands. “The set pieces changed the game,” Amorim admitted. On a night where Arsenal initially didn’t look like scoring from open play, Mikel Arteta’s side won due to two goals from corners to move within seven points of Liverpool. In all of this, United became the latest victims of Arsenal's not-so-secret weapon. Since the start of last season, no team in Europe has scored more goals from corners than their 22. “Set-piece again, ole, ole, ole,” was the song ringing around the Emirates.
The tally may have increased further. “We could've scored more and I'm very pleased with that,” said Arteta, as the visitors imploded against the dead-ball, in a crisis of in-game management and on-pitch leadership. The wicked deliveries from Declan Rice and Saka, hit with such precision, pace and consistency, gives Arsenal a clear edge over their opponents. Amorim and United were aware of Arsenal’s record from corners but were powerless to stop it. The Portuguese agreed that Arsenal’s corners were the best he had faced as a coach. “Every team have had problems with that,” he said.
The threat was clear long before Jurrien Timber’s opening goal. But after the breakthrough, every corner became a moment, as the Arsenal fans rose to cheer every run-up while United crumbled. It fed into a sense of inevitability. Even the delay as Rice or Saka walk to the corner flag gives Arsenal time to slow down and orchestrate their chosen routine, as the set-piece coach Jover emerges on the sideline and the excitement grows. Arteta spoke of the “connection” and “belief” in the stadium that makes defending corners even “more difficult for the opposition”. There was satisfaction, too, that they had managed to be so effective without their most imposing target in Gabriel Magalhaes.
Amorim had warned the “storm” was coming. United, it turned out, couldn’t handle a rainy Wednesday night at the Emirates. “We have to improve, like in every area,” Amorim said. United appeared shaky and vulnerable to the inswinging deliveries, which was in complete contrast to how they were structured defensively in open play. The corners kept coming, too, reaching 13 by full-time. It was a measure of Arsenal’s dominance by the end, as Amorim highlighted a reason for why Arsenal were able to generate so many set-piece opportunities.
“You see every occasion when (Gabriel) Martinelli and (Bukayo) Saka have one-on-ones, a lot of times they go outside and they cross, and they know that if the cross goes well, they can score, and if it is a corner they can score, too, so we have to be better on that,” he suggested.
It was noticeable that this was one of several statements regarding Arsenal’s record from corners that Arteta did not completely agree with post-match. From his view, Saka and Martinelli often go outside because they have the skill and speed to reach around the full-back and score, not to win a corner. Arsenal have become so efficient from set-pieces because the club needed to “maximise” all areas of their preparation and performance in order to challenge Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City for the title, but the Spaniard does not want other elements of his team to be overlooked. Arsenal have not suddenly turned into Stoke City under Tony Pulis - at the least, Arteta does not want any comparisons.
“We want to be very dangerous and very effective from every angle and every phase of play,” he said. “Last year we scored the most goals in the history of this football club, not because of only set-pieces but because of a lot of things that we have. We want to create individual and magic moments, too.”
But against United, Arsenal’s goals from corners were those magic, game-changing moments. United had denied and frustrated Arsenal at first with their shape and work rate off the ball. The double full-backs of Noussair Mazraoui and Tyrell Malacia were initially effective against Saka and Martin Odegaard, who was blocked from getting into his usual zones of influence. Amorim was convinced it was working as he returned into the dressing room at half-time. “You could feel it in the stadium,” he said. “We managed to control moments.”
The breakthrough, flicked in Timber, came down to the accuracy of Rice’s cross and hitting the perfect spot at the near-post. From a short run-up, his ball bypassed two United players in Bruno Fernandes and Hojlund, having just enough dip to find Timber’s run. Rice explained his approach. “It's more just seeing clips and I know the weight I need to put on the ball and it's just about repetition,” he said. “I put a few good balls in and could've had a couple of assists so it was nice to get one.”
By then, the whole stadium sensed United’s vulnerability. Arsenal hit the bar from Rice’s cross from the right, with goalkeeper Andre Onana exposed again. Even when United made the first contract at the near post, Joshua Zirkzee came close to directing Rice’s delivery inside the far post. Mikel Merino headed wide, from another Saka cross that was hung up towards the back as United second guessed themselves.
There was a great piece of reinvention for Arsenal’s second, too. In the first half, Saka’s crosses had been directed right under Onana’s crossbar, causing jittery flaps and punches, along with a blocked shot from Oleksandr Zinchenko and a glaring miss from Martinelli. Then, with United’s front-post defence prepared for the train of Arsenal shirts, Saka hung a beautiful booming ball towards the back. Thomas Partey nodded across for Saliba to tap in, as Hojlund grasped.
Arsenal, by then, needed it. They had threatened in the first half, but only from their corners. But when Arsenal are frustrated, they now have a back-up plan. Arsenal are not a set-piece team, and in the second half there were the usual flashes of the intensity of their attacking play that is really this team’s defining trait. But Arsenal are very good at set-pieces, and their work in becoming the best in Europe certainly paid off as they maintained their momentum in the title race.
