In December 2022, Mikel Arteta shared that he was in group chats with elite managers from the NBA, NFL, and Australian cricket.
There isn’t much cricket and football can teach each other tactically, but Arteta has learned that a predictable attack can still be unstoppable.
England bowler Stuart Broad against Australian opening batsman David Warner was the proof. Broad dismissed him 17 times in 31 Test matches across a decade, because left-handed Warner struggled against the right-arm inswinger — regardless of whether it came from around or over the wicket.
What has this got to do with Arsenal’s corners? It is a perfect illustration of how the same outcome can occur from identical scenarios with subtle tweaks. At the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday night, four miles across north London from where Broad often faced Warner at Lord’s, Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Manchester United owed to two goals from corners.
All 7️⃣ times @StuartBroad8 dismissed Warner this summer!! 🔥#Ashes pic.twitter.com/OhPn1HyD2L
— England Cricket (@englandcricket) September 16, 2019
It is the fourth time in 2024 they have scored multiple times in a game from corners, and the 13th match (all competitions) since the start of last season where Arsenal have broken the deadlock with a goal from a corner — they have won 12 of those, the exception a 1-1 draw with Liverpool last December.
Against United, Arsenal were without Gabriel, who had 12 of their 25 corner attempts and scored four of their five corner goals in the opening 13 league games.
Their stock delivery is an inswinger, which this season they have targeted between the posts. Runners from the back-post become decoys and blockers to clear space for Gabriel, who makes his runs from the penalty spot.
Arsenal’s first corner against United was a stock ball.
Here, United used four zonal markers across the six-yard box, two near-post zonal markers (Bruno Fernandes and Rasmus Hojlund) and two blockers: Manuel Ugarte on Kai Havertz and Mason Mount tracking William Saliba.
Arsenal’s five back-post runners made various near-post moves. Saliba ran towards the goalkeeper. Jurrien Timber (5ft 10in) took up the Gabriel role, attacking the back-post.
The near-post runners were trying to disrupt Hojlund and Fernandes, making runs across them and giving slight nudges as they would jump. Rice’s inswinger was met by Thomas Partey four yards out, but it hit his shoulder and went wide.
From corner two, set-piece coach Nicolas Jover tweaked things. Timber moved to the back-post and started making aggressive runs to the front-post, just in-front of Fernandes. Andre Onana punched this one clear.
He might be one of the smaller players, but height only accounts for 22 per cent of aerial ability. Timber’s vertical jump, springing up off both feet, is excellent.
Two corners in four second-half minutes proved Arsenal’s worth. United ticked some of the boxes on how to stop them: defend with a hybrid scheme (a mix of zonal markers/blockers) and create space for the goalkeeper to punch/catch.
However, their zonal blockers, Ugarte especially, did not grapple enough, and they fell foul of the golden rule — do not give Arsenal more than five corners, as beyond that point, they always create shots and finish more clinically.
Matthijs De Ligt headed Arsenal’s fifth corner clear, though United’s near-post problems were clear. The ball only reached De Ligt, a central zonal marker, because Gabriel Martinelli got in Fernandes’ way at the near-post, and Hojlund mistimed his jump.
From corner No 6, Timber headed in the opener — only the second headed goal of his senior career.
United had positioned their zonal markers aggressively in the first-half, though by this stage they were closer to their own goal-line than the six yard-box. Onana didn’t have space to punch anymore.
Timber makes that near-post run, and it comes off.
Because they started from deeper, Hojlund and Fernandes stepped forward to attack the ball, and overcommitted. Timber ghosted in-behind Hojlund — Arsenal didn’t have any near-post blockers on this occasion — and flicked a header past Onana from Rice’s inswinger.
United almost conceded from the next corner, when Hojlund switched to a blocking role, on Saliba, and substitute Joshua Zirkzee took his near-post zonal position, as Mount was subbed off.
Martinelli made the same blocking run on Fernandes, and Zirkzee jumped too late. He glanced the ball, in an almost identical way to Timber, from about the same spot, to the back-post, and Ugarte cleared off the line.
Rice was asked by broadcasters Amazon Prime how much he practiced his delivery. “Because of the game schedule, it’s hard, it’s more just seeing clips,” he said. “I know what I need to do, the weight of the ball I need, whether it’s front or back (post). It’s just repetition when I’ve got the chance, (and) it depends on the opposition”.
As threatening as Arsenal were from Rice’s corners, Saka’s delivery from the right lacked quality and consistency. But at corner eight, he switched to back-post balls, and at corner nine, Arsenal scored again.
They began creating and exploiting two-v-one overloads on back-post zonal marker Noussair Mazraoui. Timber and Jakub Kiwior blocked Mazraoui and Leny Yoro (on for Harry Maguire), United’s two deepest zonal markers, while Saliba held off Hojlund.
Mikel Merino’s introduction as a substitute, for full-back Oleksandr Zinchenko, added another aerial threat. He started making crashing runs from further out.
It meant Partey was isolated to head the back-post ball across goal. This hit Saliba, who was in the ideal position by initially trying to block the goalkeeper, and it went in off his hip.
Saka continued the back-post balls, and Merino should have scored from corner 11. Arsenal repeated the routine, and as Saka’s ball was slightly more central this time, Merino was unmarked but headed wide from a standing jump.
Arsenal had six shots and two big chances from 13 corners. Only once in a Premier League game since Jover’s arrival in summer 2021 have they created more expected goals from corners (at home to Leicester City in August 2022).
In Gabriel’s absence, they found solutions, with different approaches from either side, and those six shots were taken by four players. Before the United game, Arsenal hadn’t scored a corner goal in a Premier League match without Gabriel since he joined in 2020. Now, they look like they don’t even need him.
