2 March 2026: How can football’s lawmakers fix the corner chaos?
27 March 2026: Could England’s set-pieces win them the World Cup?
After a clear and obvious 6-month coordinated attack by BBC journalists and pundits on Arsenal, Mikel Arteta and our style of play, it seems their tune has changed when it comes to England.
In a piece by “Chief football writer” Phil McNulty, Thomas Tuchel is praised for his “attention to detail and pragmatic approach” whilst the article goes on to state that set-pieces, led by Arsenal’s Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka could make “the difference between success and failure“.
In recent months, we have seen the BBC change the way it reports news – from being a high-brow website which focused on reporting actual news and sharing insightful analysis, it is now no better than TalkSport where they now produce articles with inflammatory headlines based on what a radio presenter on 5Live has said. I never thought I would see the day the BBC became a clickbait news outlet.
After months of colleagues putting down Arsenal’s achievements this season (just 4 games lost) due to what is seen as a heavy reliance on set-pieces, the tune seems to have quickly changed for England.
Talking on BBC Radio 5 Live, former England and Spurs goalkeeper Paul Robinson said “I genuinely think set-pieces could help England win the World Cup. There are no pictures on the World Cup trophy. It doesn’t matter how you win. It’s whether you win or not.
“We will be talking fine margins at the World Cup. In the latter stages especially, games could be decided by the odd goal, a single incident, a moment.
“If you have someone who can throw a ball into the box from the halfway line or deliver a perfect, dangerous ball at a set-piece, use them.”
I would actually say fair play to Paul. It is refreshing to read a view from a pundit that states the obvious – fans of successful teams do not care about how they won trophies. And history very rarely mentions playing style, just the success.
Robinson goes on to say that he believes there is “snobbery about set-pieces and teams that use them”.
Arsene Wenger was certainly one of those who was a bit of a set-piece snob. He was of the philosophy that set-pieces merely exists to restart the game, and should be taken as quickly as possible. His teams were often critisiced for being poor at defending and attacking set-pieces.
Now that BBC’s Chief football writer has promoted set-pieces being key to England’s success, it will be interesting to see whether the organisation continue their coordinated attack against Arsenal, or whether they will now change the narrative…
And I would actually love it if England won the World Cup, with goals only from Harry’s Kane and Maguire from set-pieces.
Keenos