22:39, 02 Mar 2026, updated 22:39, 02 Mar 2026 By IAN LADYMAN, FOOTBALL EDITOR

If Arsenal lift their first Premier League title since 2004 by scoring many of their big goals from corners and set-pieces this season then they will not care and nor should they. Dead ball routines have always been a part of top-flight football and if teams like Arsenal and others are perfecting the art then maybe it’s time for everybody else to look in the mirror and ask why they aren’t doing the same.

Not much of it is pretty, though. Watching players block, pull and hold at corners is becoming an increasingly unedifying spectacle and even those who are getting good at it are starting to wonder what it’s all about.

Arsenal scored two more goals from corners to beat Chelsea at the Emirates on Sunday but it’s actually Liverpool – with seven from their last nine – who are running hot from set pieces and throw-ins as the season reaches its defining point.

Yet even their manager Arne Slot said on Monday that: ‘My football heart doesn't like it. Most...