Lee Dixon responds to claims Arsenal rely on set-pieces | OneFootball

Lee Dixon has shot down claims that Arsenal are overly reliant on set-piece goals, suggesting the Gunners threat from corners and free-kicks is something to embrace.

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Arsenal have made an excellent start to the 2025/26 campaign, sitting top of the Premier League, second in the Champions League on goal difference, and in the quarter-finals of the League Cup, with the FA Cup still to get started.

Yet there has still been plenty of criticism of Mikel Arteta’s side, most notably surrounding the fact that many of the team’s goals have come from set-pieces.

Speaking to Daily Cannon this week, Lee Dixon pointed out that those set-piece goals don’t come out of thin air, and it’s what the team does in open play that creates those opportunities.

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“No, [the number of set-piece goals is] no problem for me,” Dixon insisted.

“I think people sometimes forget this, you get stuck with stats and say, well, they’ve scored this many – but in order to create a goal from a set piece, specifically a corner, you have to win a corner or a free kick.

“Which suggests that you’re putting teams under enough pressure for them to give the ball away or foul you. You’re having shots, you’re getting crosses blocked. You’re creating a pressure environment where defenses are giving things away. So let’s not forget that.

“People just go, “they’re luckily getting corners and scoring from them”. And if they didn’t do that, they wouldn’t.

“If they weren’t scoring from those corners, you would go, ‘we need to get goals from elsewhere’, but they are scoring and they’ve almost created a model of excellence when it comes to those types of set pieces.”

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As for why Arsenal have been such a set-piece threat this season, Dixon was quick to point to the takers.

“The biggest reason for that is what I mentioned before, is you’ve got arguably two of the best world corner takers,” Dixon explained.

“Saka corners from that right-hand side are just exceptional with his left foot. And as I said, Declan Rice, nobody whips in a ball like he does into an area as consistently as he does. Luckily we’ve got them for England as well!

“Bizarrely, he wasn’t on the corners the other night and maybe it was just to give somebody else another go. But yeah, I’m not over concerned about the fact that we score a lot of goals from set pieces. It just shows determination. It shows desire. It shows an imagination from the coaches.

“I mean, they’re not reinventing the wheel. Some of the positions they take up are quite surprising at times. The one they’re all doing at the back post now. So there is an element of brilliance in the coaching side of things. So let’s embrace that rather than make it a negative.”

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Arsenal’s set-piece threat will undeniably take a bit of a hit in Gabriel Magalhaes’ injury absence, with the centre-back contributing two goals and three assists from set pieces so far this season.

The Brazilian centre-back is set for a spell on the sidelines after suffering a thigh injury on international duty, and it’s up to the 27-year-old’s teammates to keep scoring those goals without him.

If Saka and Rice are as effective as Dixon suggests, the players in the box stepping up to the task couldn’t ask for better service.