Arsenal and Tottenham lead the way as Premier League goes back to the future | OneFootball

Set pieces and long throws are back in vogue as clubs revive old-school tactics

There is an argument that next month’s north London derby should be played as the first ever set-piece shootout.

Picture the scene. Arsenal and Tottenham alternating between attacking and defending dead-ball situations. Set-piece coaches Nicolas Jover and Andreas Georgson marshalling things from the touchline as Mikel Arteta and Thomas Frank proudly watch on.

A huge roar goes around Emirates Stadium, as though a penalty has been missed, when Mohammed Kudus swings in a corner but Micky van de Ven heads over.

Advantage Arsenal in sudden death, then Gabriel towers above Guglielmo Vicario to seal victory.

Gabriel heads home an injury-time winner at Newcastle, with set pieces back with a vengeance

Arsenal FC via Getty Images

Welcome to the 2025-26 Premier League season, where a record-breaking 19 per cent of all goals have been scored from corners.

Add in penalties, free kicks and long throws and there has never been a better time to have a CV titled “set-piece coach”.

Arsenal have scored nine goals from set pieces, averaging one a game. Spurs sit third in that particular ranking with five.

They are both effective exponents of those situations but everyone is having a go.

That includes Thomas Tuchel as he puts together England’s World Cup plans. “I told you - the long throw-in is back,” he said last month.

Set pieces were once the realm of the so-called lesser teams.

They served as a leveller, a long throw or cleverly worked corner a way to unsettle the opposition.

The thinking was that playing free-flowing, expansive football was the right way to do it.

Set pieces, on the other hand, were for those not technically good enough to compete otherwise.

I told you - the long throw-in is back

Thomas Tuchel

The top sides, though, have realised it does not need to be one or the other.

In the relentless search for marginal gains, why not maximise every possible opportunity to score?

Arteta came to that conclusion long before his time in the Arsenal dugout.

“Ten years ago,” he revealed last week. “I wasn’t here but 10 years ago I said, ‘It is a massive thing to do that’ and I started to have a vision, to try to implement a method and try to deliver that.”

There is an element of teams copying what is viewed as fashionable.

The more teams score from set pieces, the more others will follow. Embrace it or fall behind.

Teams right down the football pyramid have spent more than a decade trying to implement Pep Guardiola’s principles, regardless of how many times they have gifted up farcical goals in their own box.

With all due respect to Wolves, had they been the Premier League leaders from set pieces it is unlikely to have caught on quite so much.

The sight of title-challenging Arsenal embracing their set-piece dominance acts almost as a green flag for others to follow suit.

Arsenal set-piece coaches Nicolas Jover has a key role alongside Mikel Arteta

Getty Images

That is not to say Arsenal should take credit for this season’s Premier League obsession.

Football more generally is in an era of control over improvisation and set pieces provide the perfect platform for that.

Teams can dictate where they deliver the ball under no pressure and routines can be choreographed in a way that is impossible with the variables of open play.

Sean Dyche has an alternative explanation, based on the theory that there are very few new ideas in football.

“Now it’s coming back round to set pieces are in vogue,” Dyche said. “Five years ago people were going: ‘Why do you rely on set pieces?’ That’s just the way it goes. It’s just the cycle.”

A relentless fixture list also plays a part. Teams in European competitions have very few training sessions between matches, when recovery is prioritised.

In limited windows of time, it is much easier to coach effective set pieces than it is attacking patterns from open play.

Tottenham set-piece coach Georgson says he gets only 40 minutes a week with the full Spurs squad but the opportunities for significant improvements are evidently still huge.

The stage is set, then, for a north London derby showdown. Gabriel vs Van de Ven. Jover vs Georgson.

If all else fails and the set-piece shootout finishes level, maybe the two teams can play a 90-minute match to decide the winner.