Sport
Arsenal’s not so secret weapon has been blunted by Premier League’s latest trend
Goals are celebrated less passionately. It was the second minute of extra time in Arsenal's draw against Chelsea earlier this month and Nicolas Jover jumped like a coiled spring from his seat on the bench and immediately high-fived an excited Mikel Arteta.
The Gunners had earned their third corner of the match and Martin Odegaard rushed over to take it. This was Jover's last chance to underline why he makes a lot of money, and Arteta very consciously stepped aside.
The set coach, standing center stage, waved and pointed like an orchestra conductor, imploring the Arsenal players to take very specific positions.
Odegaard played the corner too short – a rarity – and William Saliba was then flagged for offside as an intense, mediocre encounter ended 1-1.
Yet it further underlined how important Jover has become to Arsenal's identity.
After winning the north London derby in September, Arteta praised him as “the best in his field” and several players raved about his precise planning.
Last season, Arsenal scored 22 set goals in the league, 16 of which between them came from corners, and their towering cast has reaped the benefits of schemes that have many similarities to American football and basketball.
Early in Saturday's defeat to Nottingham Forest it looked like another set-piece goal had been scored when Odegaard whipped in a free-kick for Mikel Merino and Jurrien Timber cleared the ball – but it was ruled out for marginal offside.
But Arsenal are on four points in the league so far, level with 10 other sides, and they have scored one in the Champions League ahead of Tuesday's visit to Sporting Lisbon.
Is the novelty of the not-so-secret weapon starting to wear off?
It's not that Arsenal no longer excels at set pieces. It's just a case where everyone else has 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 that continued the trend by handing starts to Jover and Chelsea's Bernardo Cueva, indicated just how important it is elsewhere.
Fulham is now the only team that has managed to find the net from a set piece this season.
Fancy guessing which player has made the most shots from dead ball situations? Andreas Pereira, whose 25 is five more than Odegaard (who is injured), Bukayo Saka and Declan Rice combined.
The Premier League average for set goals has hovered around 20% for a number of years (peaking at 28.5% in 2010/11). Last season this was 19.8% (247 of 1,246) and so far this season it has dropped slightly to 18.9% (65 of 343).
The specialist coaches also work tirelessly on how to deal with threats, which goes a long way in explaining numbers being cancelled.
Every time Arsenal come across a corner, Jover is also on the move, although a third of Arsenal's league concessions so far in 24/25 have also come from set-pieces.