Dead-Ball Dominance: How Set-Pieces Are Shaping the Premier League Run-In

The Premier League has always been a league that rewards physical presence, tactical discipline, and the ability to exploit every available advantage. In 2025/26, one advantage has risen above all others: the set-piece.

More set-piece goals are being scored this season — 0.73 per game — than in any other Premier League campaign on record since 2013-14. A higher proportion of all goals are coming from non-penalty set-pieces — 26.9% — than in any previous campaign. And at the heart of that dominance is the corner kick, which is reshaping results, title races, and survival battles with a regularity that would have seemed extraordinary just a few seasons ago.

With only a handful of games remaining, the teams who have mastered the corner are Arsenal and Tottenham — and both are fighting for their seasons, at opposite ends of the table.

A Structural Shift Across the Entire League

Before focusing on the title and relegation implications, it is worth understanding the scale of the transformation that has taken place across the Premier League this season.

Almost every team has become less effective in open play. Manchester City, Manchester United, and Nottingham Forest are the only sides to have increased their open-play expected goals compared to last season — and even those three have done so by less than 0.1 xG per game. The improvement is negligible. Meanwhile, ten of the seventeen ever-present teams have seen their open-play xG drop by more than 0.1 per game.

Whether this shift is the result of managers deliberately prioritising set-pieces at the expense of open-play development, or because opponents have become better at defending in transition, is ultimately immaterial at this stage of the season. The pattern is established. The numbers are clear. And with so few games remaining, the teams who can exploit set-pieces most effectively hold a structural advantage over everyone else.

Nowhere is this more apparent than in corners.

The Corner Revolution: Record Numbers

Goals from corners are being scored at a rate of 0.48 per game this season — the highest in any Premier League campaign since 2013-14. Corners now account for 17.5% of all Premier League goals, a figure that dwarfs anything seen in the previous twelve seasons, where the highest proportion recorded was just 13.9%.

This is not a gradual trend. It is a step change. Corners are dominating Premier League football at a level without modern precedent — and with the title race and relegation battle entering their decisive stages, that makes corner proficiency one of the most important metrics of the run-in.

Arsenal: Breaking Records in the Title Race

Arsenal are not just the best team in the Premier League at corners this season. They are the best team the competition has ever seen when it comes to creating chances and scoring goals from corner situations.

When Eberechi Eze scored against Newcastle last weekend from a short corner situation, Arsenal broke the Premier League record for the most goals from corner situations in a single season, reaching 17. The previous record of 16 was shared by three clubs: Arsenal themselves in 2023-24, West Bromwich Albion in 2016-17, and Oldham Athletic in 1992-93.

The underlying numbers explain why this record was not a surprise.

Declan Rice is the engine behind this production. Only Bruno Fernandes’ corners have led to more goals this season — eight compared to Rice’s seven — but Rice’s deliveries have generated chances worth a total of 6.9 xG, by far the highest of any corner taker in the division.

For Arsenal, still fighting for the Premier League title and currently level on points with Manchester City, set-pieces could be decisive in more ways than one. If City keep winning, Arsenal may need to not only match their points tally but boost their goal difference. In that scenario, winning games by multiple goals — with corners as the primary weapon — becomes a genuine tactical imperative.

Their remaining fixtures offer meaningful opportunities. West Ham, who Arsenal face in the run-in, have conceded 15 goals from corners this season — the worst defensive record in the division at set-pieces. Burnley have conceded only eight corner goals, but lead the entire Premier League for xG allowed at defensive corners at 11.3 — meaning they are consistently allowing opponents into excellent positions from corners, even if they have been fortunate to limit the damage so far.

Arsenal scored from a corner in the reverse fixture against Fulham and will hope to create more than the four corners they managed in their narrow 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace at the Emirates earlier in the season. The fixtures are challenging but navigable — and if Rice keeps delivering at his current standard, the goals will come.

Tottenham: Corners as a Survival Lifeline

At the other end of the table, Tottenham are fighting for their Premier League survival — and their corner record tells a story almost as remarkable as Arsenal’s.

Spurs have scored 15 goals from corner situations this season, placing them second only to Arsenal in the division. Such has been the dominance of corners this campaign that Tottenham may yet equal the previous record of 16 that Arsenal have just broken.

But the context surrounding Tottenham’s corner goals is very different from Arsenal’s. For Spurs, corners are not a supplementary weapon. They are the primary — and in many cases the only — route to goal. Only relegated Wolves have averaged a lower open-play xG per game this season than Tottenham’s 0.68.

Every single one of Tottenham’s 15 set-piece goals has come from a corner. They have not scored from a free-kick or a throw-in situation all season. Not one. Their long throws — deployed frequently and prominently — have not produced a single goal.

The situation has become even more acute following the devastating news that Xavi Simons suffered a season-ending ACL rupture, joining Wilson Odobert, Dejan Kulusevski, and Mohammed Kudus on the treatment table. Simons had been Tottenham’s most creative influence, and his loss leaves Roberto De Zerbi’s side desperately short of options in open play.

Against Wolves last Saturday, Tottenham looked incapable of breaking their opponents down until João Palhinha poked home from a corner deep in the match — the scrappiest of goals, but by far the best chance Spurs had created all afternoon.

With Simons gone, corners may be Tottenham’s only realistic route to goals in the final four games. And the fixture list contains a degree of encouragement.

Only West Ham have conceded more goals from corners than Chelsea’s 11. Leeds have shipped nine corner goals, and only two teams have allowed their opponents more shots from corners than Leeds’s 92. Everton are next on that list with 88 shots faced — and they are also on Tottenham’s remaining schedule.

Spurs may only need two wins from their final four games to give themselves a genuine chance of survival. The fixture list, in terms of corner vulnerability among their opponents, offers a plausible path.

The Shared Paradox: Reliance as Both Strength and Weakness

There is a tension embedded in both clubs’ relationship with corners that cannot be ignored.

Set-pieces are, by definition, easier to defend against than high-quality open-play football. Opposition teams can prepare specifically for them. They can study the delivery patterns, the runner movements, the blocking schemes. When a team becomes known primarily as a set-piece team, it invites an increasingly specific form of defensive preparation.

Arsenal have faced criticism for what some perceive as an over-reliance on dead balls — though given that they are breaking Premier League records and contending for the title, the criticism carries limited weight. Whether the strategy is viewed as brilliance or pragmatism will likely depend entirely on whether they lift the trophy in May.

Tottenham’s situation is starker. Their set-piece reliance is not a tactical choice built on top of open-play quality — it is a structural crutch that has exposed their creative limitations throughout the season. The inability to produce a single free-kick or throw-in goal all season, combined with an open-play xG figure only marginally better than a relegated side, paints a concerning picture.

And yet, last weekend, both north London clubs secured narrow, nerve-shredding, absolutely vital 1-0 wins thanks to a single goal from a corner. Both will need to find a way to do exactly that again — probably several more times — before the season ends.

If those corners go in, nobody will be asking how the ball got to the back of the net.

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