Kyle Walker has faced Arsenal 30 times in his career, so he knows just how difficult it is to defend the Gunners’ set-piece routines.
Formerly of Tottenham and Manchester City, Walker isn’t the biggest lover of Arsenal, based on the rivalries he’s adopted over the years.
Now at Burnley, the 35-year-old is experiencing the Gunners in a different light, but one thing hasn’t changed since he made the move from City to Burnley in the summer.
Walker beat Arsenal to the Premier League title in both 2022/23 and 2023/24, and there’s one memory that stuck with him throughout the changes: the North Londoners’ set-piece threat.
Rodri’s changed his tune. 🤭 What do you make of this comment?
Kyle Walker describes what it’s like to defend against Arsenal’s set-pieces
“How hard is it to mark Arsenal’s corners?” Walker was asked on The Overlap.
He didn’t shy away from giving an honest answer, replying, “Horrific. Horrific,” before elaborating.
“It’s weird, but the movement is just not normal in football,” Walker explained.
“And when you’re constantly looking over your back, when you’re seeing, you know, Gabriel, Saliba, these big six-foot-four men running at you.”
Last season, Walker was punished by an Arsenal corner as he was completely outmuscled by Gabriel Magalhaes, who scored at the Etihad in the 2-2 draw.
That game might have been 18 months ago, but he made it clear that the memory of Gabriel’s goal lives with him today.
“I mean, I remember I got done on a goal at City, when he’s trying to touch me, and I’m slapping him away. All of a sudden, one movement there, one movement behind, I’ve lost him. I’ve lost him.
“We were zonal at City, and he put me on Gabriel to try to hold him, and it was like ‘he’s not scoring this one, he’s not scoring this one.’ Goal.”
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It’s not the first time that a member of the opposition has commented on the strength of Arsenal’s Brazilian in set-piece routines.
Marco Silva called Gabriel impossible to stop after he punished Fulham, with the centre-back’s role in the Gunners’ set-play a dream for Nicolas Jover and a nightmare for everyone else.
Walker’s description of what it’s like to defend an Arsenal set-piece puts Jover’s work into perspective, as one of the best full-backs of the Premier League’s modern era just could not compete.
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