Champions League: The not-so-secret weapon that makes Arsenal a contender

Arsenal has played large spells of the young 2024-25 season like a plucky underdog, an overmatched-but-resilient team determined to punch above its metaphorical weight. In the English Premier League, it has been notably conservative and passive. In its UEFA Champions League opener, a 0-0 draw in Italy, it traded dynamism for defensive sturdiness, and managed only nine touches in Atalanta’s penalty box.

But on Matchday 2 of the Champions League, the Gunners showed yet again why they can challenge for all available trophies.

The reason, in two words: set pieces.

They beat Paris Saint-German 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, and plenty of pundits would suggest that they didn’t play all that well. They created less than 1.0 Expected Goals. They had less possession, fewer shots, and so on.

But they have mastered the static part of the sport that so many purists used to ignore. And on Tuesday, like last month at Tottenham and Man City, like on Saturday against Leicester City, they used a dead ball to give them an edge.

Kai Havertz had already given them a 1-0 lead with a header. Then, in the 35th minute, from a free kick, they all but put the game to bed. Bukayo Saka swung in a free kick. Nobody touched it. And the ball squirmed through bodies, past PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, into the net.

It sounded simple. It looked fluky. But, in context, it was anything but.

It was likely the latest trick drawn up by set-piece coach Nicolas Jover, who has become a revered figure for his role in transforming Arsenal into perhaps the best dead-ball team in the world.

Nine days earlier, Jover had drawn up a scheme that baffled and (nearly) beat Manchester City. In a fiery, potentially pivotal clash atop the Premier League, Arsenal players crowded near the back post as Saka lined up corners. They blocked off City players, and cleared a runway for Gabriel Magalhães, who attacked that back-post area, and met Saka’s cross, and gave Arsenal a stunning lead over the EPL champions.

Six days later, the Gunners beat Leicester with a similar back-post corner in the 94th minute.

So, three days after that, when they won a free kick near the right sideline, their primary threats gathered at the back post yet again.

PSG, unlike Man City, adjusted accordingly — and left the near post relatively barren.

So, presumably anticipating the adjustment, Gabriel and Thomas Partey and Havertz and Gabriel Martinelli swooped into that barren space. Saka targeted it. PSG couldn’t clear his cross, which left Donnarumma on the floor, defeated.

It was Arsenal’s fifth set-piece goal of the 2024-25 campaign already. The Gunners have scored more than two dozen in the Premier League alone since the start of last season, and nearly four dozen since Jover joined the club from Man City in 2021.

They have a lethal combination of elite delivery, aerial prowess and a best-in-class coach drawing up schemes, all of which is the reason they’re currently near the top of the Premier League table rather than toward the middle of it.

From open play, they have been rather ordinary in the EPL and Champions League so far. Hampered by injuries and red cards, they have not been the high-flying force that they were at times a year ago.

But they have the stingiest defense in soccer. They have this set-play threat, which won’t disappear anytime soon. They have a mentality that’s been shaped by manager Mikel Arteta, and hardened by title chases in 2023 and 2024.

So, come 2025, they will once again be a legitimate contender.