Dead-ball situations have become a game within a game and, increasingly, a sense of theatre has emerged.
Aston Villa and Arsenal have two of the most well-known set-piece coaches in the Premier League, their reputations shrouded in some form of mystique, such is the celebrated nature of backroom coaches in modern football.
Both rise to their feet from every attacking free kick and corner, ready to delve into a catalogue of routines. Their arrival sets the scene and stokes the tension.
Austin MacPhee often takes centre stage in Villa’s technical area, providing clarity to the set-piece takers’ soft signals. With long flowing locks, his presence is distinguishable. He brings a holdall to every game, comprised of routines, defensive setups and a list of hand-written notes and diagrams that tell substitutes where they have to station themselves.
The heightened significance of MacPhee’s role is illustrated by how he has his own set-piece analyst, Jose Rodriguez Calvo.
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“Every team uses set-piece coaches now,” said Unai Emery on Friday. “Twenty years ago, there weren’t any specialist coaches, but I always liked to work a lot on set pieces. We work on the training pitch for a minimum of one day, sometimes two days, before a match on offensive and defensive set pieces. Before each match, one meeting is set aside solely for set pieces.
“That can be the difference between winning and losing. Arsenal are fantastic at them — they are doing a fantastic job.”
Down Hornsey Road, Arsenal supporters walk under a bridge. On either side of the bricked walls are murals of players and club legends. Martin Odegaard and Ian Wright have one each.
A sign of the times, a mural has been created of Arsenal’s set-piece coach, Nicolas Jover. Like MacPhee, his appearance in the technical area is obvious and, with every passing week, his celebrity swells.
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Cameras pan to him before most set plays and when Arsenal score — they matched the Premier League record for goals scored from corners last season (16, tied with West Bromwich Albion under Tony Pulis in the 2016-17 campaign) — other coaches grab Jover to congratulate him.
A mural of Nicolas Jover on Hornsey Road (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
Arsenal are heavily reliant on Jover’s set pieces. This season has followed a similar theme to last: Arsenal have scored 10 times from corners and free kicks, equating to almost a quarter of their league goals. Before their visit, Villa’s total of eight was similarly impressive and the league’s third-highest (with Crystal Palace in second).
All of this suggested a meeting between the two would be dependent — even defined — by how influential each dugout could be.
This was arguably the most bench-focused clash in the Premier League. Villa and Arsenal possess set-piece specialists who prowl the technical area. MacPhee and Jover had studied one another meticulously. They are homogenous in their ideals, with both of them great advocates of in-swinging corners.
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Arsenal’s first corner came inside a minute. Jover sharply stepped out from the bench and in front of Mikel Arteta to bark orders. To his right, MacPhee stepped out at the same time, but took a position back and in the far corner of Emery’s technical area, wanting to get a wider view of the routine.
Unlike Arsenal’s recent opponents, who wanted to stop one of their bigger boys from entering the box, Villa decided against keeping a player forward. Instead, they positioned their taller players towards the back post, anticipating where the corner would be delivered.
Jover stood with his arms folded while MacPhee stayed behind Emery and talked incessantly into his collar, where his mic was connected, through an earpiece in discussion with his set-piece analyst.
Villa were wary of Arsenal’s methods early on. They complained when Jover stepped out of the box and insisted Villa’s players were collapsing easily under pressure. In the eighth minute, Arsenal had two corners in succession and David Raya, stationed on the halfway line, sprinted towards Jover before relaying his instructions to Odegaard.
Raya ventures far from his goal to give Odegaard instructions while MacPhee organises Villa from the technical area (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
MacPhee, in the meantime, watched carefully, hoping to detect any subtle message. Emiliano Martinez had previously done the same for Villa.
A game away at Arsenal ignites a different fire in Emery. He is more theatrical — he ran 10 yards to his right with one hand in the air when pleading for a corner, akin to a bowler appealing for leg before wicket (LBW) in cricket. His eyes darted to his left whenever an Arsenal coach approached the fourth official and, by the end, his throat was that sore he could only croak in his press conference.
Arteta was the first to be booked for his reaction to a decision. Arsenal’s stream of set pieces was frequent, especially in comparison to Villa’s only corner. They did not apply the ingenuity Villa tend to — they repeatedly targeted the back post — but hoped the sustained firing of that area would pay off.
Arsenal’s two goals came from Villa’s defenders not getting tight enough, first to stop Leandro Trossard’s two crosses and then not applying enough pressure on the goalscorers — Gabriel Martinelli and Kai Havertz — to block the shot.
Although the root cause was frustrating for Villa’s bench, it did not illustrate structural deficiencies. In truth, Villa stayed organised, robust enough to withstand waves of Arsenal pressure and pack a punch on the break.
When they did land a blow on the hour mark — through substitute Lucas Digne’s whipped cross for Youri Tielemans — they pounced on Arsenal’s daze. Jhon Duran and Donyell Malen, who had been readied to come on before Tielemans’ header, remained on the bench, with Emery explaining after that the adrenaline the goal gave Ollie Watkins was a factor in keeping him on.
Jover (left) steps outside his technical area while MacPhee approaches Emery (Jacob Tanswell/The Athletic)
Eight minutes later, Watkins scored.
Emery was booked for punting the ball away and will not be in the dugout for Villa’s next league match against West Ham. Presumably, his absence means MacPhee will be an even greater presence.
“We showed resilience, mentality and how we reacted on the field,” said Emery.
Ezri Konsa won a free kick from Arsenal’s 10th and final corner and roared with delight. Arsenal’s last set piece was then plucked out of the air by Martinez.
Emery’s side kept their nerve to salvage a draw — the first time they had come from two goals down to get a point in a Premier League fixture since 2013. Built on a solid defensive base and helped by ruthlessness up front, Villa won the battle of the benches.
(Top photos: Getty Images)
