Are Arsenal deliberately ‘cheating’ at set piece situations? Do we care?

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?