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Featured Image Credit: Getty/ Sky Sports
Topics: Arsenal, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Gabriel Magalhaes, Football
Ben McCrum
Topics: Arsenal, Premier League, Tottenham Hotspur, Gabriel Magalhaes, Football
One eagle-eyed fan thinks they may have figured out how Arsenal have intelligently adapted to Premier League set-piece rule changes.
Arsenal have had a near-perfect start to the 2024/25 Premier League season, winning three matches and drawing one.
Their most recent win came over the weekend, as they edged past rival Tottenham Hotspur in a 1-0, with Brazilian defender Gabriel the solitary goalscorer.
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And one fan thinks they may have spotted the new strategy deployed by Arsenal during set pieces that allows them to create chances like the one given to Gabriel during Sunday's match.
Last season, Arsenal's set-piece specialist Nicolas Jover excelled at training the squad to use 'holding' tactics during set pieces, strategically blocking or obstructing players in the box to create space for attackers.
However, Premier League rule changes ahead of the start of the season clamped down on this type of tactics, telling VAR to pay closer attention to any attempt to interfere with an opponent's ability to play the ball, meaning Jover had to adapt his tactics.
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Andf one fan thinks they'e notice how, writing on X, the fan wrote: "Instead of White messing around with the keeper, we now use the opposition defender as the meat in the sandwich to press against their keeper just as the corner is taken. Sneaky 😏"
The fan then followed up their initial post with images comparing how Arsenal took a set piece in last seasons derby and to the strategy that led to Gabriel's goal on Sunday.
The examples they used from last season show Ben White trying to put Tottenham keeper Guglielmo Vicario off by holding onto him and moving behind him once the set piece starts, shortly after Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg scored an own goal.
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Whereas this season, Jover has adapted to new rules as Gabriel uses Tottenham defender Cristian Romero to block Vicario's line of sight, leaving the Italian keeper almost no chance to see him before he struck the ball and found the back of the net.
Speaking after Sunday's match Vicario promised Tottenham would adapt to this style of set piece.
He said: “It is tough to find a solution. It’s a good delivery. Maybe Gabriel is a little bit just free to head the ball and put it down in the net. We will look, we will look.
“Of course in our meeting we will analyse, try to fix it and try to do better."