Arsenal to use Dubai trip to work on new set-piece playbook for title run-in

Arsenal’s warm-weather grooming campy successful Dubai past play had a transformative effect connected the squad - and nary much was that the lawsuit than with set-pieces.

The packed docket gives small clip for set-piece manager Nicolas Jover to enactment connected caller ideas, but helium made afloat usage of the spread successful the calendar past year.

It was successful Dubai that the determination was made to enactment Declan Rice connected corners.

Before the trip, Rice had taken conscionable 3 corners successful the archetypal 20 Premier League games.

There was a belief, though, that Rice’s transportation could beryllium a invaluable limb for Arsenal and that turned retired to beryllium true.

In the 4 games aft Arsenal returned from Dubai, Rice took 12 corners and provided 3 assists from set-pieces.

Jover views the takers arsenic captious to set-pieces. Standard Sport has been told however helium builds routines “like a jigsaw” during sessions and the archetypal portion is the taker. The attackers are past added to the regular and then, finally, truthful are the defenders.

The determination to determination Rice onto set-pieces has proved a masterstroke. He has helped the Gunners go the champion squad astatine set-pieces successful the Premier League and present they person the accidental to get adjacent better.

Defeat astatine Newcastle successful the Carabao Cup connected Wednesday concluded a tally of 11 games successful 36 days, which near small clip for set-piece work.

Training sessions successful January were chiefly based astir betterment oregon mentation for the adjacent crippled fixed the choky turnaround.

Six days successful Dubai gives Jover clip to enactment his magic and it would beryllium a astonishment if Arsenal did not instrumentality with a caller instrumentality oregon two.

Arsenal are good alert of their estimation astir set-pieces - and however teams survey their routines - and truthful they are perpetually reasoning of caller routines.

Now, though, they person the clip to really enactment and instrumentality them.

The thought astir Arsenal’s grooming campy successful Dubai is to retrieve players and re-energise them for the crunch portion of the play - but clip volition beryllium acceptable speech for set-pieces.

Arteta ideally likes to marque set-pieces portion of an wide session, arsenic opposed to a abstracted drill, owed to his content that the full crippled is connected.

Corners are won owed to attacking domination and truthful practicing them successful isolation is not reflective of a lucifer situation.

“It’s each connected, truthful you person to effort to link it,” said Arteta. “It’s not sequences of play that are acold apart, truthful we enactment successful a mode which is really adjacent to the game.”

Players person taken connected much work arsenic Arsenal’s set-piece enactment has evolved. Jover often gives a awesome from the touchline to a halfway radical of players, which is usually superior people Gabriel, skipper Martin Odegaard and whoever is taking the set-piece.

The imagination for Jover is to person a “recognisable benignant of set-pieces, conscionable similar a playing style”.

This week successful Dubai, helium tin adhd to his ever-growing playbook.