In the Dubai-Hitte in January 2024, Arsenal came across the red-hot angled bravery of Declan Rice.
After his £ 105 million summer movement from West Ham, midfielder Rice only took three Prem corners in 20 performances to start the 2023-24 campaign before the mid-seasle journey from the club to the Middle East on January 8.
After a gloomy run of one win in five during the festive period, the Winter Zon was the catalyst for Arsenal's impressive run-in of 16 wins and a draw of their last 18 league games.
In the end you still fall short on the last day and ended two points of champions Manchester City.
A added and unexpected bonus from that Dubai camp was Gunners Set-piece Guru Nicolas Jover Die Rice's magic wand from a right foot from Dead-Ball situations and Honge, in particular corners.
What Jover's eye attracted was Rice's consistency of placement and the rare ability to vary his delivery style of his lus curls to the rear post to more direct near-post drilling machines.
Gunners -Manager Mikel Arteta said: “Declan has been there since we decided to use it because of his incredible deliveries. He is so consistent.
“We have scored many goals. That curve, that level, is impossible to maintain. We knew it would fluctuate, so we have to improve again. “
From January 20, 2024 until the end of the season, Rice took 44 Prem corners and produced four assists in victories against Crystal Palace, Newcastle, Tottenham and West Ham.
It was banging 6-0 from his former hammers on 11 February 2024 who really stood out.
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Rice's corner saw William Saliba open the score and his free kick was on his way to Gabriel, not to mention his own curling world to wrap things against his old chums in East London.
Arsenal had found their secret weapon. With the deliveries of Rice van Links and Bukayo Saka from the right, they ended the 2023-24 campaign with a joint Prem record of 16 goals from 265 corners.
That is an average of seven corners per match and one goal every 16 corners. In short, an almost guarantee of goals.
But 12 months after that London Stadium Bating, in a different title race, with West Ham the opponents again on Saturday, Arsenal's Dead-Ball Pully's have stopped.
No panic is needed. The men of Arteta remain this period at the top of the corner of the premium with ten goals from 162 – four more than the nearest challengers Aston Villa, and of Saka's ten competition assists, three are from the corners.
But the frightening Aura of Arsenal has faded in recent weeks, especially after Saka had torn his hamstring in Crystal Palace on December 21.
With Saka to at least mid -March, the responsibility in rice fell. The variety they once had who saw the defenders of opposition scrambling is missing.
Saka would visit someone on the back post for an incoming Gabriel from the right, and a little later Rice would bubble another to the nearby pole for a film-one delivery that is on average half a foot lower.
The figures have also taken a hit. Since April 2024, Rice has only registered one Prem Assist with the corners.
In fact, the midfielder has only one assist of 69 corners that have taken this period – and no assists of the 21 he has taken since Saka went under the knife.
Rice has been a shame not to have any more assists in the 1-1 draw in Fulham on December 8 was tapped by Saliba after Kai Havertz had helped it.
And the last goal of Arsenal from a corner on January 15, of another rice delivery gang down as a Dominic Solanke-owning goal of Gabriel's header in the 2-1 home victory on Tottenham.
But since then, 30 Prem corners have come and gone in competitions against Aston Villa, Wolves, Manchester City and Leicester with nothing for Touchline Prowlers Arteta or Jover to celebrate wild.
Ten points of a possible 12 in that run should not be sniffed, especially with the injury crisis of Arsenal, but with rice of the Set piece Cooking and Ethan Nwaneri and Leandro Trossard who are wrestling to replicate Saka's corner routines more.
The Gunners were back in Dubai this month with set pieces on the agenda.
Ironically, it was a corner exercise in which the German striker Havertz tried to block a shot and to pick up a seasonal hamstring injury.
Arteta is routinely mocked because of its Tony Pulis-like approach.
But the Spaniard knows that without recognized Center-Forward and a real lack of attacking fluidity, corners could be their best gamble in chasing leaders Liverpool and keeping their title dreams alive.
Rice's right foot will be in the spotlight more than ever.
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