Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta will undoubtedly be thankful for appointing set-piece coach Nicolas Jover after the first half against Tottenham Hotspur.

The Gunners have been outstanding against their biggest rivals and took the lead 15 minutes in when a corner from the right was diverted in by Spurs midfielder Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg into his own net. Just 12 minutes later, Arteta's men had a second thanks to a devastating counter-attack which was capped off by Bukayo Saka.

Kai Havertz bagged the third shortly before the interval as he powered a header past Guglielmo Vicario to surely put the game beyond Spurs. It is no surprise to see Arsenal scoring twice from set-pieces today.

So far this campaign, they have scored 16 goals from corners which is more than any other team in the Premier League. But who is the man behind this incredible statistic? Football.london has taken a closer look?

Who is Jover?

The 42-year-old began his career as a video analyst at Montpellier in 2009, a position he would hold until 2016. His work for the French club earned him recognition from the Croatian national team who employed him for a month in 2014.

Eventually, Jover would move to England where he became a member of Brentford's coaching staff as a 'technical coach' in the Championship. By the time he was poached by Pep Guardiola in 2019, the Bees were building towards their promotion to the Premier League.

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While it was a big jump to move from a mid-table Championship team to a Premier League-challenging side, Jover impressed and it was at Manchester City where he met Arteta. Despite only working together for six months before the latter's move to the Emirates Stadium, Jover made an impression on the Spaniard and would switch to North London in 2021.

What has Arteta said about him?

After poaching Jover from City, Arteta said: "Especially when I was at City, I believed that we needed somebody who specialised in that. I gave my advice to go and recruit Nico.

"I met him, we started to discuss how we could apply set pieces to the open play, which is also connected, they’re not two separate things, it’s all connected in the game, and how we could maximize that. I knew Nico from before, and I asked him to come and join our project, he did, and he’s having a really strong impact on the team."

What do the players think of Jover?

Several Arsenal players have praised Jover in recent months. Back in November, Leandro Trossard said: "It's a pleasure to work with him [Jover].

"He's really clever on set-pieces. It's such a great aspect in the game where you can open up a game. It helped us already a lot."

Saka added in January: "We do a lot of work on set pieces. It's the worst, it's the worst!

"Nico, our set-piece coach, does a really good job though, he tries to make it fun and he's enjoying it. What he's doing is clearly working so we'll have to continue doing it."