Man City are quietly cancelling out Arsenal's biggest advantage

Unfortunately for any Arsenal fans wanting to fume at the legitimacy of Manchester City's late winner at Wolves last week, there was plenty of evidence from their own team to support the decision.

It was only last month when a set-piece from the Gunners blocked Ederson from getting to the ball and was (correctly) deemed clever rather than unfair. Arsenal have made a name for themselves from dead balls, with former City set-piece coach Nicolas Jover hailed by some as the most important coach in the Premier League beyond the 20 managers.

City are not quite on Arsenal's level but are still capable of innovating, as Bernardo Silva's actions at Molineux showed. That skill, plus the high number of free-kicks and corners they way, has meant that Arsenal have only scored one more set piece goal than them this season.

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It is at the other end where the Blues really excel, though. With the help of Carlos Vicens and a recruitment team that have increased the average height and physicality of a City player, they have taken defensive set-pieces from an Achilles heel to a major strength.

That Gabriel header is the only goal City have conceded from a set-piece this season, with specialists Brentford the only team in the league to have a perfect record. Arsenal have now conceded four, and while they have had disciplinary issues that has not helped they had 11 men on the pitch on Sunday when Virgil Van Dijk headed in Luis Diaz's flick at the Emirates.

Arsenal's improvement in set-pieces has been a major factor in them becoming a bigger threat to City, and Mikel Merino headed in Declan Rice's free-kick on Sunday to show again what a threat they pose. But while it may not be as central to City's story, the numbers speak for themselves: almost as effective in attack, their superior defensive record makes them better overall.

After some tweaks to their attacking set-pieces, there was a team meeting two weeks ago that has had a positive effect on the City players as they constantly look for new ways to break teams down. There have been goals since, even if there have also been a lot of deliveries that haven't come up with the goods.

But as important as the ambition going forward has been the control not to be punished at the back. If City can maintain their rate ahead of Arsenal of not conceding from set-pieces, they will have a good chance of neutralising the impact that Jover and Arteta can have at the other end of the pitch.