How Arsenal became set-piece masters as Nicolas Jover innovation reaches new heights

There have been a few sliding doors moments during Mikel Arteta’s time at Arsenal and their trip to Dubai at the start of this year was certainly one of them.

Arsenal returned from that break and won 16 of their next 18 Premier League games, but perhaps even more importantly they came back with a new set-piece taker.

Before then, Declan Rice had taken just three corners in his first 20 league games for Arsenal. After Wednesday night’s win over Manchester United, he and Bukayo Saka now have the most assists from set-pieces in the Premier League since the start of last season.

Rice’s transformation into a dead-ball specialist is yet another example of how Arsenal’s set-piece coach Nicolas Jover continues to innovate.

Originally, when Rice joined the club, it was thought he would be a threat on the end of corners given his height. But after talks with Jover, that changed in the middle of last season.

“They built that relationship, trust and timing,” said Arteta. “They said: ‘This can work.’”

Trust is exactly what Arteta and Jover share, too. The pair first started working together at Manchester City, when Arteta lobbied Pep Guardiola to bring Jover to the club.

Arteta and Jover struck up a bond then and it came as no surprise that the latter eventually followed the former to Arsenal. Having extended his own contract at the Emirates until 2027, Arteta will want Jover and the rest of his backroom staff to do the same as they are crucial to how he works.

“He’s a very special person and obviously someone very close to me,” said Arteta. “I went to war for him at City because I felt there was a big room for improvement in that department.”

Arteta and Jover share similar views on set-pieces, believing they are linked to the wider game and not something separate. The idea of set-piece training being something that is quickly bolted on at the end of a session would not fly at Arsenal, not when there is a banner at the training ground that reads: ‘Win the game with set-pieces’.

“It’s all connected, so you have to try to connect it,” said Arteta. “It’s not sequences of play that are far apart, so we work in a way which is actually close to the game.”

The reality is in the current packed schedule, Arsenal have little time to practice set-pieces. It’s why Jover steals small moments whenever he can, sometimes grabbing players on the way to training or while they are at breakfast in the canteen.

Those who have worked with him in the past describe him as an excellent communicator, who keeps instructions simple.

“When he speaks about his work, everybody follows him,” Montpellier’s sporting co-ordinator Philippe Delaye, who worked with Jover at the French club, told Standard Sport. “The players liked speaking with him, because in only a few words they understood what he wanted.”

Jover likes work on set-pieces to be short and sharp, around 10 to 15 minutes, as that is viewed as the ideal time to keep players concentrated.

The taker is the key and it is why Rice’s move has been so vital. That is how Jover starts planning set-pieces and from there, everything follows.

“It was building a piece of the jigsaw before moving onto the next piece,” Luton set-piece coach Alan McCormack, who played under Jover at Brentford, told Standard Sport. “Finally, you had this finished jigsaw come Saturday.”

Jover is viewed as an innovator and he has to be now, with more eyes than ever on Arsenal’s set-pieces.

One of his favourite methods is confusion tactics, as showcased last season with Ben White disrupting the goalkeeper. This year, Arsenal have bamboozled opponents by all the players being at the back post before charging to the front. Manchester United found out on Wednesday night how hard that is to stop.

“You can cause a bit of confusion, unsureness, even before the set-piece is taken and that gives you an advantage,” said McCormack.

Jover trusts those he works with and it is why he would never take all the credit for Arsenal’s dominance at corners.

On the pitch, players talks before corners to discuss what routine to run. Arsenal’s main threat, Gabriel, was seen conferring with the taker before corners at West Ham last week, but captain Martin Odegaard has a voice, too.

“There are certain players who are accountable to pass information and read clues and understand what we have to do and communicate it,” said Arteta.

Jover trusts the players and the same goes for the team of analysts he works with. They are watching the game live and feeding information to him.

The dream for Jover is to have a “recognisable style of set-pieces, just like a playing style” and he is certainly on his way towards that.

It is hard to think of many other backroom staff members who are quite as well known as Jover. Arsenal have made plenty of good signings under Arteta, but Jover is right up there with the best of them.