How Arsenal Neutralise Counterattack Threats During Corner Kicks – Set-Piece Analysis

Theres nothing new to report; Arsenal are the best team in set-pieces in the Premier League, scoring eight goals from set-pieces from 9.01 xG, with the Gunners being the leagues best-ranked side in both categories.

Seven of 34 goals for the Nicolas Jover-coached team come from corner kicks, representing nearly 21% of the total, so teams try to find a way to stop this continuous danger.

One of these tactics to stop Arsenal was using counterattack players while defending their corners, forcing them to drop three attackers back.

In their most recent match, Gabriel Jesus scored Arsenals second goal against Crystal Palace from the second ball of a corner kick.

This gives us a chance to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of this trick, especially since Arsenal managed to threaten the goal and hit the crossbar from another corner kick.

In this tactical analysis, we will discuss this trick by showing examples from Arsenal and Parma.

We will analyse:

1- Is it really useful to defend the box?

2- The second ball problem

3- Short corners

4- Some probable advantages you can see (at a specific level)

Is It Useful To Defend The Box?

First of all, we should analyse whether this trick stopped Arsenals threat or not, so we will discuss all the teams that implemented this idea (AS Monaco, Paris Saint-Germain and Crystal Palace)

The main idea is to force Arsenal to drop three players, with these three counterattack players trying to reduce the number of  Mikel Artetas attackers.

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As shown below, Crystal Palace, in the EFL Cup, defend zonally with five players inside the six-yard box, one player in the second line and a player to defend the second ball while the other three players stand forward.

Arsenal naturally ask three players to stand with these three, with a player on the edge of the box and five players in the box.

Arsenal simply implement their usual idea in a small way to target Mikel Merino (white).

At the same time, the other four have the mission to block the last three zonal defenders and the goalkeeper.

The plan works, as shown in the photo below, but this trick doesnt help in this case.

The cross isnt optimal, so Merino must step back to nod the ball for the other four players, as in the following photos.