Arsenal conceded yet another goal from a set-piece in their game against Tottenham on Sunday.
The Lilywhites scored their winner through Toby Alderweireld, who rose highest to nod home a corner kick.
That loss ended Arsenal’s unbeaten run in domestic competitions after six games and the winning goal highlighted a major problem the Gunners have been dealing with.
Arsenal’s problems at the back are well known, but defending set-pieces is another problem that will hold them back if they don’t get better at it.
Despite having the experienced head of David Luiz at the back, the club has failed in dealing with basic defending and when they have a bad day as they did on Sunday, it comes with a number of defensive issues.
A recent stat from the Premier League season via Sun Sports shows that the Gunners have conceded a staggering 46% of their goals this season from set-pieces including corners, free kicks, and penalties.
The Gunners have conceded 44 goals this season and 20 of them have been from set-pieces, which is the highest among the 20 Premier League teams.
This means that the Gunners might become a better defending team if we can learn how to defend set-pieces otherwise teams will keep on targeting us via this method time and again.
Statistics can be used to prove any rubbish. 20 goals from set pieces is not the highest in the division. But this article is out to create panic by using percentage of goals scored against us from set pieces to make it look like we have conceded more than everyone else from set pieces. Goals are scored from incompetence of the receiving team and the percentage of goals conceded from set pieces don’t count rather the total number of goals conceded should be our concern.
That said, arsenal needs to work on our defence as the first goal we conceded yesterday was an embarrassment.
But 20 goals from set pieces is far, far too many, right? The point is that it is something that can be fixed, and should be fixed. Imagine the points we would have had if we have halved that number.