Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta may have laughed off comparisons with Stoke City earlier this week but the Gunners once again had set-piece coach Nicolas Jover to thank following their draw with Fulham at Craven Cottage.
William Saliba scored the visitors’ equaliser with a tap-in six minutes into the second half, after a routine that saw Kai Havertz nod Declan Rice’s corner into the Frenchman’s path.
It was another in a long line of brilliant set-piece plays crafted by Jover, who has transformed the club’s success in this area of the game since joining from Manchester City in 2021.
The Gunners dominated the remainder of the game and thought they had found a winner when Bukayo Saka headed in two minutes from time, only for the goal to be ruled out following a video assistant referee review which found Gabriel Martinelli was offside in the build-up.
“I am gutted that we didn’t win it,” said Arteta.
“We fully deserved to win it. We did almost everything that we had to do to win it. But for millimetres we could have been here with a really dominant win.”
The result leaves Arsenal six points behind Premier League leaders Liverpool, having played one game more.
Set pieces the key again for Arsenal
Much was made of Arsenal’s prowess from corner kicks following their 2-0 win over Manchester United in midweek, with defenders Jurrien Timber and Saliba scoring the goals.
It led to some tongue-in-cheek comparisons with Stoke City, who mastered all forms of set-pieces during their time in the top-flight under Tony Pulis.
Arteta said the comparisons with Stoke were a “big compliment” and his tactics paid off once again when Saliba tapped home the equaliser. It was the 23rd goal that Arsenal had scored from a corner kick since the start of last season – more than any other side in Europe’s biggest leagues.
Arsenal had 39 minutes plus added time to find a winner but, in truth, they rarely threatened Fulham’s goal from open play.
However, Arteta disagreed when asked if the Gunners have become too reliant on set-pieces to score.
“We should have scored from different ways as well because we had some big chances,” the Arsenal boss told BBC Sport.
The Gunners produced an Expected Goals (xG) of 2.0 during the game at Craven Cottage, meaning they could have reasonably expected to have scored twice from the chances they created.
But a look at the Gunners’ xG from open play – which excludes chances created from free-kicks and corners – tells a slightly different story.
At Fulham, the Gunners accumulated an xG of just 0.3 from open play – which is their second lowest this season behind the 0.18 they managed during the 2-2 draw against Manchester City at Etihad Stadium in September.
Over the course of the season, Arsenal’s open play xG is 15.9 from their 15 Premier League matches – which would rank them 10th in the league.
In those 15 matches, the Gunners have recorded an open play xG of 1.0 or below 10 times.
Asked in his news conference if his side are creating enough from open play, Arteta replied: “It’s never enough if you don’t score three, four or five.”
Chelsea’s 4-3 win over Tottenham means the Blues have moved above Arsenal into second, four points behind Liverpool.
“We have really good momentum, the team’s playing well and winning a lot of games and we wanted to do it again. The performance 100% was there,” said Arteta.
“The winning probability would be so high but this is football and the margins are so small.”