Di Premier League season don be set-piece drama plenty. No be only goals wey dem score, but di constant grappling, pushing, pulling, and wrestling. For February, about 15 Manchester United and Everton players camp inside di six-yard box. Players dey throw to floor before ball enter play. Na real carnage. Everton manager David Moyes tok say referees no want get involved.
No think say na only Premier League get dis problem. BBC Sport attend event with Roberto Rosetti, head of Uefa referees. Di Italian focus on goalkeepers wey dey pressurised for set-pieces. Arsenal be di kings of am, dey crowd and surround goalkeepers for corners, dey find way to create space and score. Fast forward to Sunday, di season-defining VAR intervention wey affect Arsenal title chances and West Ham hopes to remain for Premier League.
Dere be pushing and pulling all over di place, but Pablo dey penalised for foul on Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya. VAR intervene to disallow am, and di Gunners claim crucial 1-0 win. Considering Arsenal set-piece prowess dis season—21 of dia 68 league goals (31%) come from set-pieces—dere be irony say such defining moment result for opposition goal ruled out. Jarrod Bowen stand over ball for corner flag. Plenty tins dey happen for penalty area as e deliver cross. A melee ensue before Callum Wilson blast shot over line. Salvation for di Hammers? Enter video assistant referee, Darren England.
You no fit blame VAR for taking time. Dis na huge moment with five potential fouls buried among bodies. Whatever decision England make go be subject of intense scrutiny. Make we break am down step-by-step, consider di potential fouls and wetin VAR go dey look for. Tomas Soucek on Kai Havertz: For chronology of fouls, dis be di first potential incident. Di two players dey for near post, with Havertz in front facing ball. Soucek dey climb over back of di Germany international. As ball dey air, di Arsenal forward end up for floor with Soucek on top of am. VAR go take into account say di players no dey area where ball go land—Havertz no go prevent from playing am. Say Soucek dey face ball dey go in im favour. All in all, VAR go allow dis to go.
Martin Odegaard on Jean-Clair Todibo: Straight-forward situation to judge. Both Odegaard and Todibo dey engage for mutual holding. When dis be di case, no one party dey judged to commit offence—essentially, dem both dey as bad as each other. Odegaard get arm round waist of di West Ham attacker, wey get arm round di Norway international shoulder.
Leandro Trossard on Pablo: Di battle between Trossard and Pablo start just outside di six-yard box as ball dey kicked. Dem both dey hold each other first before Pablo try make run towards goal. Dis be when Trossard, with im back to di play, grab Pablo around waist. Based on wetin we see dis season, e no enough for penalty as Pablo fit move to di flight of ball and no dey dragged down. However, dis be di incident wey fit be of most interest to VAR outside di foul on Raya.
Pablo on David Raya: After moving into di six-yard area under pressure from Trossard, Pablo engage with Raya. Crucially, e do am in way wey impede di goalkeeper from being able to claim or play di ball. Pablo get im arm directly across di Spain international, and dey hold di goalkeeper left arm with im hand. Dis restrict Raya for two ways: im right arm dey pinned down by Pablo left biceps, and im left forearm dey held too. For VAR, dis clearly impact di goalkeeper ability to play ball. Todibo dey pull back of Raya shirt too, but na Pablo commit di crucial foul.
Declan Rice on Konstantinos Mavropanos: Rice get im arms around waist of West Ham Mavropanos. Dere be potential for dis to be penalty, as e be clear non-footballing action. However, e happen almost simultaneously with Pablo challenge on Raya. Di foul wey get material impact on di passage of play dey prioritised. And dat na Raya attempt to play ball.
For all di talk about jostling and pushing, West Ham own na di only goal wey dem rule out for am on VAR review dis season. Four goals don dey chalked off for foul, but no for dis reason. Seventeen penalties don dey awarded for pulling and holding dis season, five of dem through VAR. Three more spot-kicks suppose don dey given through missed VAR interventions. Plenty don dey made of similar incidents dis season, two involving di Gunners.
Manchester United 0-1 Arsenal: William Saliba on Altay Bayindir. Arsenal score from corner when Saliba put arm on chest of United goalkeeper Bayindir. Di France international dey clearly put pressure on am. Saliba briefly touch arm of Bayindir but only when ball dey flight, and no in any way wey prevent di keeper from attempting to reach di ball. Di key match incidents panel tok say: “Dere be contact between all di players around di goalkeeper but dere no be pushing or holding offence by di attacking player.”
Arsenal 4-1 Aston Villa: Gabriel on Emiliano Martinez. Di Gunners score di opening goal from corner, as Gabriel jump with Martinez with im elbow raised. Dere fit be small amount of contact on di goalkeeper arm, but e no dey judged to be impactful. With no holding or clear restricting of movement, di key match incidents panel tok say “no foul”.
Manchester City 3-1 Bournemouth: David Brooks on Gianluigi Donnarumma. Bournemouth Brooks dey hold arm of City Donnarumma, wey then flap at ball before Tyler Adams score. Crucially, Brooks release di hold on Donnarumma before di Italian try to challenge for ball. Di key match incidents panel tok say Brooks “lets go as di ball comes across” and therefore “di panel supported di referee call of goal”.
West Ham set to contact referees body over disallowed goal. Arteta praise officials courage for overturning West Ham equaliser. Tony Pulis and Sam Allardyce dey early to prioritise set-plays, before Sean Dyche figure out di current blueprint, albeit with less success than Arsenal don get. Arteta Arsenal and di tactics dem don use don pave di way for how corners don dominate di Premier League dis season. Allardyce approach dey heavily data-led. E go position im players for zones where di ball mathematically get di highest chance to land. Pulis and Allardyce focus on corners na smart allocation of time and resources but di routines lack some of di ingredients Nicolas Jover, ex-Brentford and current Arsenal set-piece coach, later introduce.
Corners dis season don become most effective as in-swingers played into crowded six yard box. Neither Allardyce nor Pulis sides crowd di six-yard box as much as Arsenal and di rest of di league now dey do. Dyche Burnley side of 2019-2020 move tins on. Dem play crosses into dis area, only three or four yards out, while preventing keepers from being able to claim di ball. Tactically, dat Burnley side dey ahead of di curve but as with everything for football, player quality matter, as dem no score as many goals with di tactic. For Arsenal, di quality of dia crossers for Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka, paired with di aerial threat of Gabriel, be key. Di Gunners success catch attention of di league, with most teams following suit dis season, notably Manchester United, Chelsea, and Tottenham.
Lots of grappling dey happen before di ball dey play, and referee fit do no more than stop di game and order retake. Dis no really prevent am from happening again and again. Dis no be only defenders holding on to attackers. Everybody don dey at am, an unedifying trend throughout di campaign. At di end of every season, PGMO canvasses di opinions of stakeholders—coaches, captains, fans, media rights holders—on issues with how di game dey refereed for di Premier League. E dey used to gauge opinion outside of di referees own echo chamber, and away from di headlines. For di past e don lead to tweak to handball, for instance. Dis summer, hair pulling and grappling for di box fit come up. Maybe referees go try to clamp down and issue more yellow cards before di ball dey play. Because right now dere seem to be five or six potential fouls on every corner.
Former Premier League assistant referee Darren Cann tell Match of di Day say e go make drastic change. “I feel say di time don come now for law change whereby no attackers dey allowed for di six-yard box before di corner dey taken,” Cann tok. “Lots of teams grapple for corners, sometimes before di ball don come into play, and then obviously di referee no fit give penalty, no fit give indirect free-kick, if di ball no dey play. So dis go create dat natural separation and eradicate dese kind of situations.” Another suggestion be to make di play ‘live’ as soon as di ball dey placed for di quadrant. Di law change go mean penalties and free-kicks fit dey given for fouls wey dem make before di corner dey taken. E create buffer between di set-up of di play, and di ball being delivered into di box. E fit remove di potential fouls as di ball dey about to be delivered, as players go need to disengage for few seconds before dis. Di other option, of course, be say teams change di way dem play and stop trying to find di minor gains by pushing di laws to di absolute limit. Dat sound like wishful thinking.
Do you have a news tip for NNN? Please email us at editor @ nnn.ng
