Arsenal have made headlines from set pieces for all the right reasons over the past two seasons.
Last year, Mikel Arteta’s side led the Premier League in goals from corners and free kicks, with 20. That form carried into the early months of this term and in December, they led the league for set-piece goals again, taking their tally to eight after William Saliba and Jurrien Timber scored from corners in a 2-0 win over Manchester United.
In the absence of set-piece taker Bukayo Saka, who missed 12 league matches with a hamstring injury, and defender Gabriel, whose ability to attack crosses is up there with the best, Arsenal’s productivity has slowed in 2025. Still, owing to that early-season flurry, Arsenal remain the league leaders, with 12 goals from corners this season.
They have fallen from their perch as the league’s top goalscorers from set-piece situations overall, with Crystal Palace overtaking their London rivals. Still, while only four sides have scored fewer than Arsenal’s two goals from indirect free kicks, they remain as innovative in these situations as any side in Europe under the careful direction of Arteta and set-piece coach Nicolas Jover — and their creativity came close to putting Arsenal on level terms in their semi-final first leg against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday.
After falling behind to Ousmane Dembele’s left-footed finish, Arsenal were knocking on the door for an equaliser. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma pulled off a world-class save to deny Gabriel Martinelli shortly before half-time and Arsenal came out of the blocks quickly after the interval.
PSG head coach Luis Enrique did not employ a low block at the Emirates Stadium, but with Arsenal pursuing an equaliser, the French champions began to place more emphasis on weathering the storm. A minute after half-time, Mikel Merino was fouled 25 yards from the PSG goal.
“A lot of teams are defending with low blocks, so open play is one thing, but set pieces aren’t something very different to the game,” Arteta said last October. “It’s connected, so it’s as important, because against low blocks we are going to generate more free kicks and more corners.”
The free-kick arrangement was unusual but not unique for the north Londoners. As Declan Rice stood over the ball, six Arsenal players responded to the PSG line of defence by arranging themselves closer to Donnarumma’s goal, with the nearest Arsenal player (Timber) positioned a few yards to the left of Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who was guarding the near post.
On the cue of Rice’s raised hand, the Arsenal players moved inside and towards the PSG defensive line, who had anticipated the movement and remained in a unit.
Anticipating Rice would send his delivery towards the far post, Timber blocked Achraf Hakimi while his team-mates let the ball sail over their heads towards Merino, who had a free header around six yards from goal.
Merino found the back of the net, but after an agonising three-minute VAR check, the goal was ruled out for offside.
“As the Arsenal players are coming back from the offside position when Rice takes the free kick, have the players got back onto an onside position?” former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg theorised on the Prime Video broadcast. ”What we’ve got to remember is Merino doesn’t have to be in an offside position.
“If the (Arsenal) players are blocking the defender’s ability to play the ball, then it will be given offside, and that will be a very subjective call.”
But ultimately, the VAR decision was not influenced by other Arsenal players, with Merino deemed offside.
Not what Arsenal fans wanted to see 😬
Mikel Merino’s equaliser is ruled offside by VAR.#UCLonPrime pic.twitter.com/c33geRuCG1
— Amazon Prime Video Sport (@primevideosport) April 29, 2025
It’s a wide free-kick arrangement that Arsenal have employed consistently under Arteta.
One example came in the 4-0 win over Bournemouth last season. On this occasion, Gabriel Jesus adopts the Timber role, blocking the first man in Bournemouth’s defensive line from dropping back to compete at the near post. While the execution is not identical, with Martin Odegaard aiming the free kick towards the near post, Gabriel joins the block, allowing Ben White behind him to get a free header. In this instance, the pattern worked perfectly.
They found similar success against Liverpool in the 1-1 draw at Anfield two months later. From a similar angle to the Rice delivery, Jesus, Gabriel and Kai Havertz are lined up behind Liverpool’s defensive line and move back on Odegaard’s raised-hand cue. Jesus again moves towards the first man, blocking Kostas Tsimikas, and Havertz follows suit with Dominik Szoboszlai.
Gabriel, who has scored nine goals in all competitions for Arsenal since the start of the 2023-24 season, moved into the vacant space at the near post and glanced a header beyond Alisson and into the Liverpool net.
When it works well, it’s among the most effective ways to conjure space for players to attack wide deliveries into the box. However, Merino’s offside effort against PSG is not the first time they have got their timing off.
In Arsenal’s 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest this season, they followed the same procedure from a wide-right free kick at a similar angle.
In this instance, Timber adopted the same role as he did against PSG, affecting Forest’s ability to win the first contact, while Merino, Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori moved in behind. Nicolas Dominguez blocked Merino’s goal-bound header before Timber reacted to put in the rebound.
On this occasion, the assistant referee immediately raised his flag, and the VAR confirmed his decision.
Arsenal have been a step ahead of their competition from set-piece situations, but these instances highlight the fine margins between success and failure with this arrangement. Besides, as Clattenburg highlighted, its effectiveness is at the behest of the officials, who could qualify the ‘blocking’ aspect as an infringement.
Thanks to Arsenal’s success from set pieces in recent seasons, Jover has huge credit in the bank and few would put it past them to score from a similar routine in the second leg. But, given they have been caught out on a few occasions this season, he may feel it’s time to put this particular arrangement on ice.
(Top photo: Justin Setterfield/Getty Images)
