The Chris Wheatley Show is a brand new weekly series talking all things Arsenal and the Premier League. This week, Chris Wheatley and host Matthew Gregory discuss the Gunners' set pieces secrets, north London derby win over Tottenham and the latest on Mikel Merino and Martin Odegaard's injuries.
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00:00Well, I think it's also worth asking about the set pieces because this is something that we've
00:04heard a lot of talk about the way Arsenal have been working on them. You mentioned Theo Walcott's
00:08comments. He was talking about how during the summer he was, you know, along to one of Arsenal's
00:12training camps and saw that set pieces were being worked on specific sort of routines right the way
00:17through the summer, whereas he was saying that in his day under Wenger, it was something that was
00:21only really sort of worked on during the week before a game. It's obviously something they've
00:25really focused on. Arsenal scored more goals from set pieces than any other team in the Premier
00:29League last season. This is another game which has been won because of set pieces. How important
00:34has that become to the way Mikel Arteta sets his team up? And is that making enough of a difference
00:38sort of, you know, really fuel a title challenge going forward, do you think?
00:43Well, Matt, I think the best example of how good Arsenal are at set pieces is that video going
00:50around on social media of the Spurs fan turning away as the corner was taken for Arsenal's winning
00:56goal at the weekend. I've never seen that before. You know, fans are now scared to watch Arsenal
01:01take set pieces because they know how good they are. And I think last season, Arsenal were the
01:06best from set pieces. I think it's called something like 16 goals, most in the league,
01:11dead ball specialists, of course. And I think really, you have to give credit to one man,
01:15and that is Niklas Jover, the set piece coach at Arsenal. He really has a lot of responsibility,
01:23has a really important role, which has kind of evolved since he joined a couple of seasons ago.
01:28I think he's actually got more responsibility as his time has gone on at the club. And
01:34he's so keen now. You see him a lot of the time when Arsenal are taking a set piece,
01:38he's next to Arteta. Sometimes Arteta goes back in his seat in the dugout and Jover is out there
01:44telling the players what to do. And I think this is how not just Arsenal, but football has evolved.
01:49Now we see a lot of set piece coaches in the league. Jover, you've got to give him credit.
01:57He's clearly made a huge impact. And Niklas Arteta said after the game at the weekend
02:03that he is the best in his field. So that's a pretty good praise coming from your boss
02:11when he hears that. And I think it's clear to see. You look at the set pieces that Arsenal
02:17are taking, there's a clear plan behind each one. That Gabriel goal was really superb.
02:23And a lot of people will say it was bad defending from Tottenham, but it was really clever
02:28the way specific players actually kind of moved around and Gabriel got the header in.