“We’ve never seen that from Arsenal” - Aaron Lennon highlights ‘big worry’ about Gunners after title race slip up

Former Tottenham star Aaron Lennon believes Arsenal have become too obsessed with set-pieces. He claims that it has become a big worry for Mikel Arteta's side as they have lost their silky football style.

Speaking to Metro, Lennon stated that the Gunners are no longer playing their best football and are more excited about the corners and set-pieces. He added that the over-reliance has made their football boring and no longer free-flowing.

Lennon said:

"Arsenal get more excited for a corner than they do from stuff in open play – it’s so unusual for Arsenal. When you used to watch Arsenal it was playing through the lines, get it in to Martin Odegaard, silky football. Now you see them going up for a corner and you see them buzzing – like this is a real chance. We’ve never seen that from Arsenal. It’s a big worry for me."

The Gunners have scored 13 Premier League goals from set-pieces this season to help them stay second in the table. Arteta has set-piece coach Nicolas Jover and the Spaniard has repeatedly thanked him for the goals scored this season.

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Gary Neville also spoke about Arsenal being over-reliant on set-pieces

Gary Neville was on his podcast earlier this week when he spoke about Mikel Arteta's side. He claimed that the Gunners were obsessed with set pieces and not thinking about scoring from open play. He said:

“Arsenal have become quite rigid, quite turgid to watch at times. This obsession with set-pieces overtaking the whole game, exacerbated by the presence of the set-piece coach (Nicolas Jover) on the touchline, puts more focus on set-pieces. And I think the freedom has gone a little bit from them. I know they have lost (Bukayo) Saka, (Gabriel) Jesus, and (Kai) Havertz, which are big blows and that is a big problem for Arsenal, but I still feel they have to do the job against West Ham at home.”

Arsenal are second in the Premier League table this season and have dropped five points in the last two matches. They finished second in the table in the last couple of seasons and have not won any silverware since winning the FA Cup in 2020.