Far from relying on set-piece goals this season, the statistics suggest Arsenal’s goals have come from some of the longest passing moves in Europe.
For all the positives of the 2025/26 campaign, with Arsenal winning the Premier League, and reaching the finals of the Champions League and the League Cup, it was still hard for the team to escape the accusations that they were reliant on set-pieces.
The team broke the record for the most goals scored in a single Premier League season, with 19, which was over a quarter of Arsenal’s total goals for the league campaign.
Yet things have been very different in the early stages of 2026/27, with Arsenal winning 10 games, drawing one, and losing just one in all competitions – despite not scoring from a single corner.
James Benge highlights that Arsenal are actually averaging the most passes per goalscoring sequence of any team in Europe’s top-five leagues and UEFA competition. The Gunners’ average of 7.3 passes tops the chart, with Manchester City second on 6.6.
As well as corners, Arsenal haven’t scored from any free-kicks, with their sole set-piece goal for the season coming from the penalty spot.
For those who believe Arsenal did rely on set-pieces in 2025/26, it’s getting difficult to make that same argument for 2026/27. Even the team’s sole penalty against Sunderland only extended a lead the team already had.
There have been some recent signs that Arsenal are starting to present a set-piece threat again.
Gabriel Magalhaes perhaps should have done better after getting on the end of a corner against Nottingham Forest, powering his header over the bar.
Bruno Guimaraes was incredibly unlucky not to score against Bayern Munich, and Riccardo Calafiori was also close to poking home a finish from a corner in the same game.
Opta Analyst report that Arsenal have generated 1.55 xG from corners in the league this season, so you’d usually expect them to have scored at least once. It hasn’t happened yet, but it’s seemingly just a matter of time.
In the meantime, it’s very encouraging that the team are proving they can take the lead in other ways.
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