While Arsenal have been praised by most pundits for their set piece routines, Graeme Souness has been a bit less Impressed.
22 of our goals this season have come from dead ball situations (not including penalties).
This has led to an increased attention on Nicolas Jover and the various routines he teaches the players in training.
It’s been observed how the Gunners will sometimes stand in front of the keeper, block markers, deliberately start in an offside position and as recently as the NLD, try to steal the goalies gloves.
In the year before the coach moved to North London, 11 percent of our goals were the result of a free kick or corner. That number jumped to 26 percent in his first campaign at the Emirates.
He worked with Arteta at Man City where equally in his first 12 months at the Etihad, the Champions scored most and conceded least than any other team in the division from set pieces.
It was our manager who recommended Pep Guardiola about Jover, aware of his body of work at Brentford and Montpellier.
Souness has a simple explanation for these figures though ……’Cheating’.
This is what the Scot wrote for the Daily Mail:
“We are witnessing a stealthy, very deliberate, strategy from Arsenal – and Ben White in particular – to obstruct goalkeepers in a way which will avoid detection by the referees”.
Souness then went on to say: “Might I suggest the referees consult their own little FA rule books for a definition of that term? Law 12 states, in black and white, that obstruction is ‘moving into the opponent’s path to obstruct, block, slow down or force a change of direction when the ball is not within playing distance of either player.
“Set-piece genius’. This blocking by players from set-pieces is more prevalent than ever before, which presents a challenge for referees. But Arsenal do this every game and it’s always by White, so the penny should have dropped long ago.”
As a player and manager, the 71-year-old has earnt the right to his opinion and is more qualified than me to know the FA’s laws.
He might be technically correct but isn’t any shirt pulling, pushing based on the law not allowed?
The majority of fans would be in favour of officials having a zero tolerance towards the blatant shoving, but it goes on all the time, in every game, around the globe.
I recall Ireland once getting a spot kick awarded in the 2002 World Cup against Spain when Nail Quinn was being manhandled.
Why can I remember such a random moment over two decades ago?
Because it stands out as one of the few times a ref was brave enough to penalise a defender. He had warned the Spaniard previously about tugging on the striker’s shirt, so pointed to the spot when he wasn’t listened too.
What shocks me about the Liverpool legend’s outlook is he used to sit in the Sky Sports studio and refer to Arsenal’ image as ‘being too nice! A group of sons in laws’.
So, if our players are now using some dark arts then it’s about time. In sport, the gap between success and failure is so small so I like our players finding small advantages.
It’s another reason for Arsenal though to win the title in two weeks’ time. Because if a high-profile ex player is talking about our ‘cheating’ In his newspaper column and on Talksport, others in media will be as well.
Managers will have worked us out and will spend the summer warning officials to be more observant of what our players are doing while waiting for a delivery.
Don’t be shocked if we don’t get away with as much from August onwards.
Not that Mr Jover won’t have more tricks up his sleeve.
Is Mr Souness correct?
Are we Cheating?
Do we care?
Dan
ADMIN COMMENT
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I honestly think it’s more sportmanly behaviour than the usual arms wrapped around players, shirt pulling, bumping and barging that all the other teams do. Once again the Arsenal have found a more intelligent and sophisticated way to adapt and once again the media and ex-rivals turned pundits are bitter their team didn’t figure it out first.
Our ‘cheating’ is on the pitch and is there to be monitored by the officials, whereas our closest rival’s cheating is off-field and has to be dealt with by a whole commission.
Has Souness made any mention of this?
“Cheating” by being the best. Just the traditional Arsenal hate. Noone seems to care about the cheating that will ruin the game – all divings for free kicks and penalties.
That poor old Liverpool chap is a very lonely man who do anything for publicity. Take him to the pub and offer him a beer. He’s walking alone.
Interesting topic and questions. We’re bending the rules, perhaps, but so is everyone else. I swear the “tactic” of putting someone next to the keeper to restrict his movements is decades old – can’t remember it not being a part of the game.
I can’t imagine teams didn’t do this when souness was playing.
I can remember seeing Bob Wilson at Highbury coaching the keepers, mid 90’s, in the pre match warm up, and they were practising defending this very same tactic..
Not as far back as when Souness was playing, but it’s been going on for years.
Jax, I can remember when Jack Charlton, of Leeds United, done it against us in the 1968 League Cup Final. He blocked our keeper, Jim Furnell, at a corner which Leeds scored the only goal from.
HD, I’m sure they still call it ‘standing his ground’, which is quite legal, as long as the keeper isn’t touched.
Jack Charlton😲.
I Love Benny Blanco.
‘cheating’ or ‘clever’?
i like the fact we developing the so called ‘dark arts’, so often we hear the experts (like Souness) talk about ‘marginal gains’, ‘attention to detail’ and ‘stealing any advantage’
not long ago Arsenal had ‘no cajones’ remember, too easily bullied by physical teams
Real Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern have recognised for using all their experience and nous to get over the line
Havertz ‘winning the penalty’, took advantage of the goalkeepers error, and we 1 nil at half time calming the nerves, White pinching the velcro on the goalkeepers gloves, there was a free-kick set piece in the first half against Bournemouth where Havertz started off-side and deliberately ran more off-side when everyone else stepped onside, what was that all about? it was about causing confusion and doubt in the defenders mind
the difference to being hugely successful?
bring it on
I think it’s just being clever. Truth is, as stated already, the margins are so fine at the highest level that the teams at the top have to find created ways to gain advantage. Sometimes this involves finding loopholes in the rules and exploiting them. It is upon the referees to stop the tactics if they deem them unfair. Arsenal have no obligation to stop doing what gives them an advantage. City,the team to beat, has been known for rotational and tactical fouling over the years yet no one calls them out for it.Every team has their own set of ‘dirty’ tactics.
In an ideal world rules would be strictly observed,but we don’t live in such a world. Trying to strictly observe the rules when no one else is,is just being naive. For instance, we know that virtually all footballers don’t take throw-ins at the exact spot the ball goes out of play. Why should our players be any different. I saw some fans saying Havertz shouldn’t have ‘bought’ the penalty,yet virtually all football players would have done the same thing if they were in his position. The angles were against him and buying the penalty was the smart thing to do. City players do it all the time. I remember Bernado Silva buying a soft penalty against Xhaka . It happens.
P.S. : I think it’s impossible to avoid contact,shoving,pushing,pulling during corners/freekicks.Jover is merely taking advantage of this inevitable situation.Sometimes you have 20 people vying for the ball in that small box. You can’t expect them to observe social distancing like they are trying to protect themselves from COVID. It is upon the opposition to come up with counter measures to nullify our tactics. The fact that it doesn’t always work means some teams simply found a way of protecting their keepers. Besides,I’ve seen so much variation in our corner tactics. The White tactic is just one of many. Sometimes they don’t engage the keeper at all,approaching from the back post instead. Sometimes they do short corners. Sometimes they start from an offside position, etc
Cheating? Why can’t Arsenal’s critics accept when a team is good at what they do. A “cheating” that resulted in legitimate goals and haven’t been penalized by any Epl refree this season? Can all the refrees be biased at the same time? Some of this pundits should stop their antics of trying to make headline.
If it is not deemed as illegal then what’s the problem? If it was not legal then the referees would not have allowed those 20 goals.
And that’s where the beauty of having var to check all goals comes into its own.
We have seen White touch the glove… while the ball was out of play remember… and the keeper just brushing him away.
Once the ball WAS in play, the keeper was not impeded and White held his ground, so I’m afraid I don’t agree with Souness and his rule quote.
Souness has a problem with Arsenal POSSIBLY winning the PL. I think he wants Man City to win it if it is not his beloved Liverpool (who are unlikely to win it).
Slightly off topic, but a conversation about England winning the fair play award at the World Cup- but not the main event which in recent times has gone to teams way,way down the fair play positions, only serves to highlight how important it is getting an advantage wherever possible
Who cares more wins arsenal 💪
When wenger’s technically superior teams were bullied, physically destroyed then where were those pundits ? We were hacked down, injured, stopped illegally cause teams couldn’t beat us with skills then called kids, soft, naive etc.
Now we play smart, streetwise and excel at it now they start barking. They will quickly point out how gabriel plays physically using his hands to push opponents but said nothing when giroud was getting elbowed all game.
We dnt give a f**k, keep crying losers
The problem is, Ackshay, we still see our technically superior players being kicked, bullied and hacked down.
The tackle on Saka against Bournemouth was such a premeditated assault that was described as “reckless” that didn’t warrant a red card.
We saw Odegaard receiving the same treatment against United, with the same outcome…. the common denominator in all of this?
The officials!!
Remember how the Neville brothers destroyed Reyes and the referees performance in that game?
Our players, like all players, are open to referees understanding what other players are up to and, as most of them have never played top flight football, they just don’t!!!
I remember Sounness stamping on an opposing player’s balls
I am sure that is against the rules
TFF. Dark arts indeed. 😀
When we played away to Brentford a couple of seasons ago for our first game of that season after Brentford got promoted to the EPL, we were at the receiving end of this same so-called “cheating” against our GK that evening in one of the 2 goals Brentford scored that day in that defeat.
Anyone remembers this?
And you know what? White was our CB alongside Gabriel that evening and oh boy, he endured a torrid evening in that match, which was also his debut game for us.
I was so exasperated that evening so much that I felt we were robbed then, but it seemed nobody cared back then. Till date, after seeing White consistently disturbing the oppositions’ GKs this season during corners, it still rings in my head that maybe White learnt that ‘dark art’ from that Brentford’s game, or it’s just the set-piece coach’s instruction or a combination of both.
All teams do that , gaining advantage however slight. I remember Jon fox suggesting in an article that players should at least be six yards off a goalie during corners and set pieces. And I totally agree, keepers are never given a fair chance of fighting for a ball at all , I really wonder how the higher powers creating the rules haven’t done anything about it. Ooooh and how often gave they tweaked the handball rule?
I don’t get what Souness is moaning about. The entire games is based upon using more than footballing finesse in terms of skills and abilities to overcome opponents. It’s physical, it’s underhand, it’s contradictory. A player uses his physical presence to leaver someone off the ball for the sole purpose of causing them to lose control/possesion, change direction, impede and deliberately obstruct them. You hear the commentary during the game claiming it being clever, cute, excellent management of the situation. A player is running in a straight line with the ball at pace. The opposition player runs into them at an angle and at force to deliberately knock them off the ball, without any intention of playing the ball and the only purposes of playing the man. The effort itself is so deliberate and crude and can’t be deemed as nothing other than a foul. However, in the modern game, it’s classed as a shoulder to shoulder challenge. Remember the player running with the ball was running in straight line, and not at an angle to converge with any other player. The offending player however was doing just that. Deliberately running at an angle and leaning in to the player with the ball to halt their progress by obstructive means. If there’s a natural convergence between the two players which results in a collision then ok. But when the convergence and subsequent collision is contrived, it can only be a foul. Unfortunately, the modern game is top heavy with these and similar types of underhand tactics and as a result, no one can complain about one team or player trying to gain an advantage. Least of all Graeme Souness who’s tough tackling at thigh height was synonymous with the so called “mans game” ethic of football. If that rule 12 that he cited was really meant to be implemented, It’s likely you would end up with five players on each side at the end of 90 mins.
In short, Arsenal don’t cheat. We just play the game that’s in front of us .Our methods and tactics are no more sinister than any team in world football today !
If there was ever a case of the Pot desperately trying to call the Kettle black, this is it