Where Arsenal defender Gabriel ranks among the Premier League’s deadliest aerial threats | OneFootball

Last season’s Premier League runners-up took home the North London derby bragging rights by beating Tottenham 1-0 away. It leaves them two points behind the reigning champions ahead of this weekend’s mouthwatering Arsenal v Manchester City clash.

In his post-match comments, Mikel Arteta singled out set-piece coach Nicolas Jover. Through the former Manchester City staffer’s insights and coaching, the Arsenal manager believes, his players were shown there are “many ways to win” a football match.

One player in particular seems to have taken this lesson on board more than any other.

Arsenal have one of the Premier League’s deadliest aerial threats

On Sunday, once again, the Gunners were indebted to Brazilian centre-back Gabriel Magalhães, who netted the game’s only goal. It took his league tally to 15 strikes, with ten of those being headers. Only three others to wear Arsenal’s jersey have registered more in the Premier League era: Olivier Giroud (27), Ian Wright (14), and Emmanuel Adebayor (12).

His latest goal wasn’t from open play but from an increasingly common source. Indeed, no defender has scored more from headers per 90 minutes than Gabriel since the start of last season. He’s even competing with Premier League strikers in terms out attacking output in this area.

To demonstrate this, we used data expert Twenty3’s Discover tool to create an ‘aerial threat’ score. The score factors in headed goals, shots, xG, post-shot xG, aerial duels and aerial duel success. Based on his output in these metrics, there are only two players more effective ‘aerial threats’ than Gabriel.

Chris Wood is one of them. The Nottingham Forest striker has the most goals from headers per 90 minutes (0.25) since the start of 2023-24. Meanwhile, Fulham forward Rodrigo Muniz boasts the most headed shots per 90 minutes and the second-most aerial duels won per 90 minutes (4.33).

In-form Brighton forward João Pedro has the second-highest post-shot xG (a metric used to measure the quality of finishing). His figure of 0.17 per 90 is significantly up on his xG (0.09), suggesting he is making the most of difficult chances by steering the ball to harder-to-reach areas of the keeper’s goal.

How Arsenal lead the way for set-pieces

But when it comes to set pieces, it’s the Gunners who rule this method of goalscoring. Since the start of last season, they’ve scored more goals from set pieces (excluding penalties) than any other Premier League team (23), much to their set-piece coach’s delight.

Arteta saw firsthand how Jover improved Manchester City’s dead-ball situations both defensively and offensively and poached him from his former club in 2021. He described Jover as “someone whose expertise can be incredibly useful and valuable for us” following his appointment.

“It’s a crucial part of the game nowadays,” he added. “It’s something you have to dominate and master, and we are in that process.”

After the Tottenham win, Arteta elaborated further: “In his field, in other fields, and as a person. And the relationship that we have – that’s why I made the decision to bring him to City when I was there and then to Arsenal.

“He and the rest of the staff have injected the belief into the players that there are many ways to win football matches. This is a really powerful one, and he has given us a lot. So a big compliment to all of them.”

‘I told Arsenal players I can increase their salary by 20%’

Jover was recently profiled in the French daily L’Équipe and stressed that set pieces are no longer just “marginal gains,” but “essential gains” that can significantly impact match outcomes. “Today, I no longer need to convince the players, but at the beginning, I was telling them, ‘We can increase your salary by 20%, what do you think?'”

Jover shed light on how to extend the lifespan of set-piece innovations —  “After seven or eight matches, a combination can work again.” —  and how the effectiveness of particular routines depends on the frequency with which a team faces the same opponent.

Set-piece tactics are no longer an overlooked — and often boring, from player perspectives — part of coaching. Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand feels Jover has changed attitudes on that front.

“I used to hate standing around in the cold doing set pieces. It’s the worst thing; nobody enjoys it,” Ferdinand began. “The difference at Arsenal will be that they’re now seeing the benefits and licking their lips. They will be going, ‘Bring it on, give us another set-piece drill, give us something new.’ That guy is going to be walking about like he is the Don. If he’s not a manager within three years, I’ll be surprised. He’ll be a manager somewhere, I bet you.”