Mikel Arteta On Set Pieces: We Don’t Focus On Opposition’s Goalkeeper

By The Editor
on 16th September 2024

Mikel Arteta attempts to quash a narrative…

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta stressed that the club’s set-piece training methods have little to do with focusing on the opposition’s goalkeeper after Gabriel leapt to head in the winner in the north London derby.

Arteta’s men went into enemy territory with a weakened arsenal; having to name five academy players on the bench due to a lengthy injury list.

Martin Odegaard, Mikel Merino, Riccardo Calafiori and Oleksandr Zinchenko were all missing due to various ailments while Declan Rice was serving a one-match suspension.

As usual, Arteta deferred to experience with Jorginho and Thomas Partey lining up at the heart of the team in a traditional 4-4-2 system. It’s a formation we usually adopt out of possession, but it was prevalent throughout this occasion.

Having masterminded another win due to a set-piece, Sky Sports’ reporter seemed intent on shifting the narrative to what the team does to opposition goalkeepers from set-pieces.

“Happiness! This is what we are here for, to score goals and win football matches,” Arteta said when asked to explain his celebrations on the touchline.

The reporter then posed a question about our set-piece tactics and whether or not players are instructed to target the opposition’s goalkeeper.

“On the keeper? No. Just heading the ball. That’s what we work on. To have the right delivery and the right header, and that’s what we done.”

That answer wasn’t good enough for Sky Sports who were obviously attempting to draw a narrative from our win.

“No, no, no,” Arteta stressed when asked again if they were targeting Guglielmo Vicario.

“[We focus] On the ball, to go there, to create the right timing to score the goals.”

In the post-match studio analysis, Sky Sports laughably attempted to claim our winner should’ve been ruled out due to a ‘push’ from Gabriel on Cristian Romero. That was the view of former Spurs duo Les Ferdinand and Jamie Redknapp…