Lots of people are really getting their goat up about Arsenal's reliance on set-pieces but that's exactly what's stopping them from walking away with the league. Arteta's playing incredibly conservative football, giving up a lot of possession and control, and not getting anywhere near the best out of his squad as a result of his set-piece obsession.
Because City are in the title race this season it has distorted expectations of what we should be capable of in terms of points achieved. We're good enough to get about 75-80 points this season, maybe a smidge more than that if we go on a really strong run until the end of the season. Normally that would be nowhere near a title-winning amount.
We got 78 points in 2013, 79 points in 2015, 78 points in 2017, and 81 points in 2020. We were nowhere near winning the league in any of those seasons. United, Chelsea, Chelsea again, and Liverpool all walked away with their titles in those years. Arsenal have been building this squad for five years and they should be walking away with this one too.
Their squad has lots of quality and depth. Raya one of the best keepers in the league, a strong back four, a tall and technical midfield, lots of diversity up front in terms of player profile, the man who scored the winning goal in last season's FA Cup final to come off the bench. Meanwhile we're in the first year of an absolutely huge rebuild.
But here we are, neck and neck. And it's because they won't take the handbrake off. It's all well and good when the set-pieces work, but there have been many, many games this season in which the set-pieces haven't come off and Arsenal have had no idea how to close the game down. It nearly cost them against 10 men on Sunday.
It's a bit like us when Haaland isn't playing well. If we can supply him and he buries a chance, great. If defenders just mark him out of the game we have no answer. It's the same with Arsenal - so many points dropped this season in games when the corners didn't come off as they wanted and got pulled back into a title race with a weaker City.
0-0 against that Liverpool team. 0-0 at Forest. Losing at home to United. Getting battered by Brentford. Dropping points to one of the worst teams in the league after being 2-0 up. Nearly chucking it away in a home match against 10 men. This team has been built over the course of five years to be perfect but this is the best they've got?
Four wins in their last nine league games. What gives people the idea that they're going to suddenly win all of their last nine games in a row, scoring from corners in every single one of them? They should have strolled away with this league and they should already be planning the parade - instead they're getting cagier and cagier and cagier.
Let them carry on thinking that set-pieces are the key to winning the title. As it has done already this season, it will cost them enough points for us to take them over if we play as well as we can. Their home crowd are nervy and fractious. The atmosphere will get toxic at the Emirates if they don't score early in these final few home games.
City rebuilding and recovering from legends leaving, Liverpool a dumpster fire until Christmas, Aston Villa streaky as fuck. This was Arsenal's year to effectively seal the title in March and then go for the treble. They have squandered it. Their 22-23 squad would be miles clear of the pack right now. Instead they risk dropping to 2nd.
People think Arsenal are only leading the league because of their set-piece goals. I don't agree. They're only top because a City team recovering from a massively underwhelming season, and still figuring out a new system, spent the whole of January without a fit senior CB in the squad. They kept leaving us alive - they will pay for it.
