Arsenal underlined their status as set-piece kings by scoring two more goals from corners to beat Manchester United in midweek.
The Gunners’ corner tactics have become one of the unlikely talking points of the club’s season and Nicolas Jover is the man responsible.
Mikel Arteta‘s side scored their Premier League-leading sixth and seventh dead-ball goals of the season in a 2-0 win over United.
Arsenal were dubbed the ‘new Stoke City‘, and Old Trafford legend Gary Neville personally branded Jover ‘the most annoying bloke in football’.
The German-born French coach is never far from the celebrations whenever the north Londoners convert another set-piece.
Arsenal have scored 22 goals from corners since the start of the 2023/24 season – seven more than the Premier League’s next highest.
The Emirates outfit are at least five ahead of any other team across Europe’s top-five leagues with set-piece goals (excluding penalties).
Who is Arsenal’s set-piece coach?
Jover followed Arteta to Arsenal in the summer of 2021 having worked together at Manchester City under Pep Guardiola.
The season before his arrival, the Gunners ranked 18th in the Premier League for set-piece goals, only scoring more than Fulham and Sheffield United from such situations.
It was Arteta who originally lobbied for Jover to join City in 2019 during his time working as Guardiola’s assistant.
Jover was impressing in a similar role at Brentford at the time, which was his first position in England.
The 43-year-old started in professional football as an analyst – an interest developed while studying for a sports degree in Canada.
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Jover was influenced by the NFL at the University of Sherbrooke and his first routines came for their team, according to the Times.
He worked as technical director of an amateur club in Quebec before returning to France to become a video analyst for Montpellier.
Jover conducted similar work for Croatia’s national team but was looking to specialise in set pieces when Brentford came calling.
Dean Smith, who was in charge of the Bees at the time, told the Guardian: “I really liked what I saw and heard in our interview.
“He had such a good personality and the way he presented everything to the players helped them to buy into what he wanted very quickly. They all liked him and wanted to do things for him.”
In Jover’s three seasons at Brentford under Smith and Thomas Frank, the Bees scored 46 set-piece goals.
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His influence was so vast that Gareth Southgate sent assistants to the club’s training ground to help develop England’s set-pieces in 2018.
At that year’s World Cup, the Three Lions became specialists from corners with four direct goals during their run to the semi-finals.
Jover’s Brentford colleague Bernardo Cueva was since poached by Chelsea earlier this year, such has been his success at the top level.
Man City scored 30 times from set-pieces during Jover’s two seasons at the Etihad Stadium before Arteta snapped him up and moved him to north London.
Man City set-piece stats before/with Jover
Total goals scored
2018/19 without Jover: 95
2019/20 with Jover: 102
Set-piece goals scored (rank)
2018/19 without Jover: 11 (10th)
2019/20 with Jover: 17 (1st)
Percent of total goals scored
2018/19 without Jover: 12%
2019/20 with Jover: 17%
Total goals conceded
2018/19 without Jover: 23
2019/20 with Jover: 35
Set-piece goals conceded (rank)
2018/19 without Jover: 9 (3rd=)
2019/20 with Jover: 7 (4th=)
Percent of total goals conceded
2018/19 without Jover: 39%
2019/20 with Jover: 20%
What has he done at Arsenal?
After adding Jover to his Gunners staff, Arteta said: “I believed we needed somebody who specialised in that [set-pieces].
“I met him, we started to discuss how we could apply set-pieces to the open play, which is also connected. They’re not two separate things, it’s all connected in the game, and how we could maximise that.
“I knew Nico from before, and I asked him to come and join our project, and he’s having a really strong impact on the team.”
Jover was the mastermind behind Arsenal’s dark arts from corners as much as the routines themselves.
This included Ben White unstrapping one of Guglielmo Vicario’s gloves to distract him from a corner in the 3-2 win over Tottenham.
Jover was also credited with Declan Rice‘s transformation as a dead-ball specialist, having taken just three corners in his first 20 Premier League games for Arsenal following his arrival from West Ham.
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Rice now has the joint most assists from set plays since the start of last season with seven – level with England pal Bukayo Saka.
A major element of Arsenal’s corner routines are deliveries, with the Three Lions pair exceptional dead-ball takers.
Over 95 per cent of Arsenal’s crossed corners are inswingers – and their percentage of short corners are the lowest in the division.
Certain plays are tailored around specific opponents, but the majority involve a crowd of bodies packing the six-yard box.
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This set of players then rush into central areas when one of Rice or Saka delivers an inswinger.
Their presence means the other team need to mark them, zonally or man-to-man, which inadvertently puts pressure on the goalkeeper, while breaking from their huddle to set areas of the box can cause confusion for opposing players.
Gabriel’s headed ability means he’s the usual target and it’s the Arsenal teammates around him that are tasked with creating space for him.
The Brazilian’s skill to meet crosses shouldn’t be discounted either – his 11 first contacts at attacking corners is a Premier League high.
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What has been said?
“I dream of developing a recognisable style of set pieces, just like a playing style,” Jover told Christoph Biermann in his book Football Hackers: The Science and Art of a Data Revolution.
On Arsenal being the Premier League’s corner kings, Arteta said: “We want to be the kings of everything – at set pieces, the best in the world, at high press, the best in the world, attacking open spaces, the best in the world.”
Arsenal’s 22 goals from corners since the start of last season account for 25.2% of their 119 Premier League goals.
For comparison, Stoke’s 81 set-piece goals from a total of 188 in the Premier League under former manager Tony Pulis was 43.1% – leading to the ‘new Stoke’ tag from Roberto Martinez.
Arteta added: “I understand very well what Roberto said, it was in the best possible way so we will take it as a big compliment because they were so good at it.”
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However, on Jover, Neville declared on The Overlap watchalong: “He’s got to be the most annoying bloke in football, the set-piece coach at Arsenal. He’s got to be, hasn’t he? He’s got to be, though, hasn’t he?”
Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher added: “I’ll tell you what, give him what he wants.
“If you were that set-piece coach for Arsenal, you could write your own contract, couldn’t you? Couldn’t get rid of him.
“You know, if he said, ‘I want 25 grand a week,’ you’d have to give it to him, wouldn’t you?”