Arteta Responds To Amorim’s Bitter Comments About Arsenal’s Corners

By The Editor
on 5th December 2024

Arteta responds to bemoaning Man Utd boss…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta responded to claims from Man Utd’s new boss Ruben Amorim that the Gunners deliberately attempt to win corners after the Red Devils succumbed to our set-pieces.

Speaking after our 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium with goals from Jurrien Timber and William Saliba from corners, Amorim couldn’t quite muster up the words to explain our set-piece prowess.

The former Sporting Lisbon man later claimed our wingers – Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli – deliberately go on the outside of full-backs hoping for a deflection that sends the ball out for a corner.

Arteta made a point to respond to those claims in his post-match press conference highlighting the visitors’ defensive tactics and the lack of space to drive inside with the ball.

Saka and Martinelli need to cut inside on their stronger foot and teams often look to prevent that by overloading that area to force them wide on their ‘weaker’ side.

“We play with inverted wingers so they develop a lot as well a lot of times inside,” the Spaniard explained to the press.

“There’s not a lot of space inside, so when they leave there’s a lot of space for the full-back, and for the six and for the nine and now you can go outside, so we need to look at every angle.

“What they [opponents] do, where they can be weak, and where we can exploit the weakness of the opposition.”

The obsession with Arsenal’s corners has blinded onlookers from analysing that area of our game with the requisite context.

To be efficient from corners, you need to generate many, To generate many, you need to have sustained possession in the opposition’s final third.

We had 13 corners across the 90 minutes compared to Man Utd’s 0. That stat may have been influenced by the fact that they only touched the ball six times in our penalty box. (via Sofascore)

Arsenal cut the gap to Liverpool to seven points after the league leaders were held at Newcastle with a busy month of fixtures set to cause swings in the title race.