Much has been made of Arsenal’s set-pieces this season but John Terry has claimed some of the comments are simply out of order.
Terry was one of the best defenders in the league in terms of getting on the end of set-pieces and he scored 67 goals for the Blues.
Now, discussing Arsenal’s tactics, Terry has labelled the criticism as ‘ridiculous’.
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John Terry sticks up for Arsenal’s set-piece tactics
This narrative about Arsenal simply ‘relying’ on set-pieces is getting to the point of being ridiculous and it’s high time someone spoke up.
Luckily, Terry has done just that and he’s pointed to his old Chelsea team as a prime example of just why mastering the art of corners and free-kicks is so crucial.
“I just want to talk set plays and set piece coaches as we’ve been hearing a lot about in recent weeks. There’s been a lot of rubbish said about Arsenal and there being an asterisk next to them if they go on to win the title, which is absolutely ridiculous. They’ve been the best team by far, and also from set-pieces they’re the best by far,” Terry said on his TikTok account.
“So they’re very well drilled. The set-piece coach deserves a lot of credit, as does Mikel Arteta but the players have a big responsibility as well to do it on the pitch. The set-piece coach plays a role in identifying the gaps, so a front post space, or a back post space, but ultimately the players need to make a decision.
“You have to feel those big game moments as well. We got one of our best and most famous goals in Chelsea history when Didier (Drogba) scored from a Juan Mata corner in the Champions League final.”
Chelsea’s set-piece success when they won the Champions League
As Terry notes here, Chelsea were one of the teams who relied on set-piece goals for success and the year they won the Champions League back in 2012, they fell back on it plenty of times.
Chelsea scored 25 times that season from dead-ball situations, excluding penalties, very much putting a focus on them.
That, in turn, panics other teams and as we saw in that final against Bayern Munich, it was a corner that helped Chelsea win out.
As of right now, Arsenal have scored 25 from set-plays with two months of the season to go. But as Terry says, long may it continue if you’re an Arsenal fan.
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