‘Set Piece FC’—Liam Rosenior Sends Chelsea Warning Before Arsenal Clash

Mikel Arteta has taken an unimpressed tone when it comes to the topic of Arsenal’s set pieces.

Liam Rosenior’s first home game is up against Arsenal. | Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC/Getty Images

Chelsea manager Liam Rosenior bluntly rejected Arsenal’s tag of “Set Piece FC,” warning instead that the Premier League leaders are “good at everything.”

The Gunners have forged a reputation as dead ball masters in recent years. The moniker “Set Piece FC” was originally formed as an insult, highlighting a perceived over-reliance upon this unique aspect of the game, but has since been embraced by the Arsenal fans.

Those that travelled down to Portsmouth, in between sharp-tongued barbs at Gary Neville, repeatedly belted out “Set piece again, olé, olé” as they watched their team score from three corners and a quickly taken free kick in a 4–1 victory.

Rosenior will be tasked with finding a solution to Arsenal’s devilish near-post deliveries in Wednesday’s Carabao Cup semi-final first leg at Stamford Bridge. While previewing the tie, the Gunners’ nickname was put to the new Blues boss. “I don’t know who’s calling them ‘Set Piece FC’—I’m definitely not,” he sniffed.

The set-piece label was not completely unfounded at the start of the season. Twelve of Arsenal’s first 17 Premier League goals (71%) this term came from dead-ball situations as Mikel Arteta’s side ground their way to wins while adapting to a frontline pivoting around Viktor Gyökeres.

Martinelli was ruthless from corners against Portsmouth. | David Price/Arsenal FC/Getty Images

Since Nov. 1, Arsenal’s fluency in open play has improved—their tally of 25 goals from these scenarios trails only Manchester City (37) and Liverpool (28) in the league this season—but that reputation continues to linger.

“Arsenal are good at everything,” Rosenior pointed out. “They’re a good team. It’s not about taking the game back in time. You manage your 1% to be as good a team to win as many different ways as possible.

“They’re a team who are very good without the ball. They have a really, really clear idea in the way they want to play with the ball. And on top of that, they’re very, very well organised with good delivery on set plays. That’s what you want to be if you want to be successful.”

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Arteta Unimpressed With ‘Set Piece FC’ Tag

Mikel Arteta leaves set pieces up to Nicolas Jover. | Robin Jones/Getty Images

When drawn on this topic before Arsenal’s wintry visit from Brentford, another team who so obviously base their game on dead balls, Arteta dismissed the notion that any club is a set-piece specialist.

“I don’t know a team in the Premier League that doesn’t like to score from set pieces,” Arteta fairly pointed out. “ I think we should all be set-piece teams because we all score and concede from set pieces, unfortunately.”

Some teams have taken up these marginal gains more enthusiastically than others. Former Tottenham Hotspur boss Ange Postecoglou held a blatant disdain for the concept. “I’m just not interested in it,” he shrugged at the end of his debut season in north London. “I never have been.”

Arteta is very much interested in any extra edge he can squeeze out of his squad in search of those elusive pieces of silverware. Arsenal hired Brentford’s dedicated set-piece coach Andreas Georgson in the summer of 2020 before replacing the Swede with the infamous figure of Nicolas Jover the following year.

During Jover’s five-and-a-half years prowling the technical area, Arsenal have racked up 78 Premier League goals from set pieces, 14 more than any other side (both Manchester City and Liverpool both boast 64).

As Rosenior pointed out, set pieces aren’t Arsenal’s only weapon of choice. But they are their most deadly.

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