Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to be ‘kings of everything’ – but their rivals create more in open play

When the Arsenal bus arrived at Craven Cottage, they were welcomed by a brass band who had just performed back-to-back hits of Tragedy and Reach for the Stars.

Despite that introduction, their 1-1 draw against Fulham was neither funereal nor extraterrestrial. It existed in its own strangely placid space, a space that this Arsenal team are occupying too often for it to be considered an aberration.

It was a game in which they dominated virtually every numerical metric, apart from the scoreline. Rather than scintillating attacking play, the most vivid recollections are of William Saliba’s Cruyff turns in his own half and how often there seemed to be 20 Arsenal players swarming the middle of the pitch to counter-press.

Oh, and the corners. Of course, the corners. How can we mention Arsenal without mentioning corners?

Apart from the band’s song choices and the school child parroting Erling Haaland’s “Stay humble, Mikel” comment to the Arsenal manager, the most jarring moment from Arsenal’s arrival at the stadium was just how loud the cheer was for set-piece coach Nicolas Jover.

Like the rest of the staff, he exited the front of the bus rather than the back, but he got a reception which trumped most of the playing squad. At every corner, Arsenal’s travelling support chanted “Set piece again, ole, ole!”, performing a drum roll as Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka prepared to deliver their crosses. That is what happens when your secret weapon becomes… not very secret at all.

The good news for Arsenal is that the Premier League has not found a way to decode it yet. The bad news is that the six corners they had, which roughly account for three minutes of their possession, looked far more likely to lead to a goal than the half-hour they had the ball in open play.

In Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Manchester United, both goals came from corners. Against Fulham, their only goal of the game came from, you guessed it, a corner.

Arsenal generated two other big chances from corners as Saliba’s back-post header in the first few minutes and Thomas Partey’s free header in the 70th minute drifted narrowly wide.

It is more difficult to list open-play chances. Saka had one when he was found at the back post in the first half but failed to steer his volley goalward and he had another opening when he cut inside Calvin Bassey. Other than that, Rice’s difficult half-volley while on the run was the only other clear sight on goal.

None were of the same magnitude as those being served up by Jover’s recipes — and therein lies the problem too often so far this season.

Arsenal have failed to create more than one expected goal from open play in 10 of their 15 league games this season. They have created the same or more xG from set pieces than from open play in five of those 15 games.

In comparison to their title rivals, Arsenal are lagging considerably behind when it comes to chance creation in open play.

Arteta, twice pushed on what is missing from his side’s general play, declined to agree it is an issue.

“I think it’s a great thing that we can again score from a set piece,” said Arteta. “We can generate other stuff, we had other chances. For a team to play like this, you have to analyse every phase. Obviously, against a low block, you generate set pieces and you generate crosses because it’s really difficult to attack inside.

“It’s never enough if you don’t score three, four or five. If we want to improve, we have to be better in every action that we do. If they play 11 direct balls there I want to win 11. If they put 12, then 12. If they put the high press six times I want to play six times. We want to manage the game 100 per cent. This is football.”

Managing the game is not the problem for Arsenal. They allowed Fulham just 0.13xG and, after Raul Jimenez scored with their first shot, Fulham only attempted one more during the rest of the game — they have only had fewer in one Premier League home match on record (since 2003-04).

It was notable that instead of engaging with the lack of chances as the area to focus on, Arteta was more comfortable speaking about how they should have shut out Marco Silva’s side.

“Normally you don’t see these kinds of games here,” said Arteta. “Now we have to continue to improve and look at what we can do better so that the opposition have zero chances to win the game. That’s the objective.”

A matter of inches could have changed the complexion of the game if Saka’s late header had not been ruled out for offside by VAR, but the reality is that Gabriel Martinelli’s cross to the back post was the first time they truly opened Fulham up.

The topic of chance creation came to the fore after the 1-0 loss at Newcastle at the start of November, but the impact Martin Odegaard has had since returning these last four weeks was so seismic it had quelled concerns that there were deeper structural issues in Arsenal’s attacking strategy. However, the same issues reappeared against Fulham, even with the Norwegian.

Arsenal’s build-up play has been skewed down the right flank for the last three seasons, but the first half at Craven Cottage took it to an extreme level.

Fulham’s Antonee Robinson did as good a marking job on Saka as anyone, constantly pressing his first touch when he received the ball on the touchline. It forced the England winger back more times than not and Odegaard had one of his least effective games this calendar year, with Sasa Lukic shuttling across to the left flank to deny him a moment’s peace.

Saka was crowded out for most of the game and his two most dangerous moments actually came when he was on the far side, attacking crosses at the back post. His best work does not always have to come from receiving the ball to feet and being fed the ball in impossibly tight areas by Odegaard.

It can come from Arsenal diversifying their play and opening space up on the right flank, especially in games when they do not have the personnel to provide Saka with the supporting runs Ben White does.

With Gabriel and Riccardo Calafiori still out and Oleksandr Zinchenko picking up an injury after starting against Manchester United, Arteta was forced into another reshuffle.

The lack of consistency at full-back has plagued Arsenal so far this season and Partey, Saliba, Jakub Kiwior and Jurrien Timber was their ninth different back-four combination to start a Premier League game this season.

Partey was steady but he does not overlap or underlap, which left Saka and Odegaard without the rotations they rely on in the final third. The duo looked like they had run out of ideas come the hour mark and it was only when Martinelli came on for Leandro Trossard that Arsenal started to vary the direction of their attacks.

It would be folly to diminish the value of Arsenal’s set-piece prowess. A goal from a dead-ball situation is worth as much as one from open play. It is also the part of football that is easiest to replicate — but in Arteta’s quest to be the “kings of everything”, his team lag behind their rivals in finding routes to goal from open play.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)