lewtheycollide

Looks like old Arne could've done with a set piece goal this evening, eh!

Do you, Michael?

I live next to an airport. I sleep with earplugs. I must be a perfectionist, too.

Jesus wept.

That sounds lovely! I've never watched Arsenal with fellow supporters while abroad, but would absolutely love to.

A reminder of both would be timely! Ha!

I think at this point even if I tried it would just come out as a weighty sigh. I think maybe scotch instead. They may help.

I. Want. To. Screeeeeeeeeam.

Personally, I was infinitely more bored by City's 'tiki taka', rotational fouling, dull domination, and nailed-on victories, which the media furiously wanked over every year. And I'm more angry about the lack of will to punish them for actually breaking laws of the game by cheating with finances.

What these biased, Arsenal-hating “pundits” who moan about corners cannot seem to understand is that set piece focus is a response to negative defensive tactics that are much more damaging to their beloved free-flowing football and open play goals.

Arsenal were very entertaining for a generation, won nothing, and were mocked by the fans of every other club in the country.

Arsenal were told not to be precious and insist there was a 'right' way to play. That defensive football was valid and Arsenal were arrogant and naive to act differently.

The world has found something more boring than watching Arsenal: talking about how boring it is to watch Arsenal

I just keep seeing so many articles like this and having to check whether it's April Fool's Day. I feel like there's some huge joke that none of us are in on.

For so many years we were "bullied" and "naive", weak from set pieces, kicked all over the football pitch, and witnessed insane time wasting when less technical teams led against us, and people told us to stop whining. Now that we're no longer the victims, people are livid.

I'm starting to think this is just a huge wind-up. The fact that general discussion seems to be that Arsenal are the only team who utilise set pieces, get physical from corners, eat up time when leading, and slow the game down at times is just utterly baffling. Big bad Arsenal. The narrative is mad.

People are so desperate for Arsenal to not win the league that they're falling over themselves trying to delegitimise it in advance just in case we do.

I find the moralizing around set pieces from Slot so obviously a way to deflect from the very difficult and very real truth that the reigning champions sit 16 points off the leaders after having spent £450 million to remake the squad in his image

Literally everyone: "Arsenal HAVE to win, NOW"

Still literally everyone: "No, not like that!"

As an aside, it's amazing to me that corners and free kicks are held in such disdain yet penalties don't seem to be as egregious.

Score from a corner? Ugly.

One-on-one free hit from 12 yards? Yes, please.

Just the three set piece goals for Liverpool this weekend.

It's almost as if you just have to try to win however you can.

'Arsenal have been found to have broken rule 4C, sub-section B, that clearly states "...must have won the competition in a suitable style as agreed upon by media and opposition fans"'

Premier League goals from set pieces (including penalties), and the percentage they make up of total league goals, after this weekend's fixtures:

Chelsea: 19 of 49 - 39%

Arsenal: 22 of 58 - 38%

Man United: 16 of 50 - 32%

Liverpool: 13 of 47 - 28%

But yeah, only Arsenal get a kicking for it.

Arsenal are still effective from those situations and have continued to score from them but the reliance hasn't really existed for ages. Before yesterday, Arsenal's last 12 PL goals hadn't been from corners. It was a couple of months since a goal from a corner actually earned Arsenal any points.

Funny how when a narrative really takes off there's no stopping it no matter how far from the truth it is.

Arsenal are excellent at corners and relied on them a lot at the start of the season, no doubt, but that hasn't really been the case for months now.

24 hours apart. #Arsenal #COYG

Going to be a real shame if we win the league and then have the title stripped by an independent panel who have decided we didn't win it in a manner to their liking.

I think by the end of it probably Raya. But it was definitely not pretty to watch. Every game is such a slog. I just want it to be done and dusted.

That it was!

City have got another nailed-on three points coming on Wednesday, so our trip to Brighton is massive.

Job done. Just. Nine more finals to go.