The Arsenal corner routine that riled fans, surprised Newcastle and sent them top of the league

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Short corners were the story again when Arsenal defeated Newcastle 1-0 in the reverse fixture on Saturday, but rather than using them to disrupt the defensive organisation and put crosses into the penalty area, Arteta’s would-be champions created space for Eberechi Eze and found him outside the 18-yard box. “We have to be very unpredictable in everything we do in the game,” Arteta told Sky Sports after the match. “When you look at the physicality that they have and the way they defend, we believe it was a big opportunity for us there to exploit. “The crowd reacted in the first and second one in a certain way, which is understandable, but we do things because we believe they are going to give us value.” Arsenal went short against a Newcastle setup that consisted of five zonal players across the six-yard area, with Bruno Guimaraes defending the near post, while Jacob Ramsey, Sven Botman and Malick Thiaw (the red dots in the images below) man-marked William Saliba, Ben White and Gabriel. Ahead of them, Joe Willock (white) was in position to defend a short corner and Jacob Murphy (orange) played a hybrid role to help disrupt Gabriel, before protecting the area near the penalty spot and also keeping an eye out for late runners. On the other hand, Arsenal started these set pieces in their orthodox positions towards the back post, before surprising the Newcastle defence. Here, on the game’s first short corner, Martin Odegaard and Eze are stationed by the edge of the 18-yard box, with Kai Havertz in position to attack the back post from near the penalty spot. Martin Zubimendi is behind Nick Pope, almost on the goal line, but the Spain midfielder isn’t looking to block the Newcastle ’keeper. When corner-taker Noni Madueke gives the signal, Zubimendi and White dash towards the ball to support Odegaard, who runs towards Madueke to receive the short pass. Zubimendi’s task is actually to either occupy Newcastle’s near-post defender, Guimaraes, or attack the space behind the Brazilian midfielder if he commits to trying to close down the short corner. Meanwhile, Havertz follows White and Zubimendi out beyond the near post to overload the target area and provide more passing options. Arsenal’s idea is to use this overload to pin Willock and find Eze before Murphy can get out to close him down. However, Odegaard’s pass to Eze is intercepted by Willock on this first attempt. In his post-match press conference, Arteta praised the courage of his players to play short, even after the Emirates crowd weren’t pleased with how that first move failed. “To have this — I was going to say another word — big courage in this moment, when the pressure is on, when the reaction is like this, to play (short), that is exactly what I want from the team, because the players have to make the decision they believe is the best,” he said. On the second short corner a few minutes later, it’s the same setup from Arsenal, with Zubimendi once more dashing behind Pope to position himself towards the near post. Again, Madueke plays short to Odegaard, with Havertz, White and Zubimendi moving towards the ball. The Spaniard smartly holds his run… … which allows him to attack the space vacated by Guimaraes, and puts Botman in a one-versus-two situation. As a result, Willock has to maintain his position to cover White. The other thing to note here is Havertz’s positioning, which prevents Murphy committing to pushing up on to Eze. Once Willock tries to block the passing lane in to White, Odegaard plays the ball to a free Eze, with Murphy hesitant about moving forward due to the parallel threat of Declan Rice on the other side of the D. With neither Willock nor Murphy able to close him down, Eze gets a shot off but misses the target. If you go back through these first two corners, you will notice that Gabriel is attacking them as if they are completely normal inswingers, which delays Murphy from transitioning to his secondary defensive role of protecting the area near the penalty spot and watching for danger at the edge of the box. This is vital on the third short corner, which brought the game’s only goal. Eze, Odegaard, Havertz, White and Zubimendi are in their same designated positions as Madueke prepares to take. The movement from Odegaard and Zubimendi towards the ball occupies Willock and Guimaraes, while White attacks the space vacated by the Newcastle captain and Havertz drops to provide a passing option. Instead of playing short to Odegaard again, Madueke directly finds the free Havertz. Meanwhile, Gabriel takes a couple of steps towards the far post, which draws Murphy (orange) away from the action. Havertz then sets the ball back to Eze, with Willock and Murphy both far from the England midfielder… … who curls a shot into the top corner to win his title-chasing team three vital points. Arsenal’s short-corner routine against Newcastle was well planned and executed in creating the winner, but the other parts of it were important too. Throughout the three set pieces, positioning Piero Hincapie, Gabriel and Saliba towards the far post made Newcastle hesitant about committing more players to the ball because Arsenal can cross it to their aerial threats after initially going short and manipulating the opponent’s setup — which is how Mikel Merino scored their 84th-minute equaliser at St James’ Park in September. “We practise it all. We practise the short one, first post, second post… everything,” Odegaard told Sky Sports after the match. “That’s our quality. We can score in so many different ways, and today we did it brilliantly — credit to the work we do on the training ground.” Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms