Is this the tip of Arsenal’s strongest weapon?

Mikel Arteta might find himself rushing back to the drawing board on the eve of the new Premier League season after a VAR shake-up looked to target one of Arsenal‘s strongest tactics. 

The north London side have been flagbearers of the dark art of ‘holding’ over the last two seasons with the strategy, which often involves blocking or obstructing opponents from set pieces, aiding their rapid rise to title contenders.

Set-piece mastermind Nicolas Jover has coached the Gunners on set-piece secrets and to great effect. The side had the most set-piece goals excluding penalties (22), the most goals via corners (16) and conceded the second-fewest number of set-piece goals excluding penalties (six) last season.

Crafty tactics often involve players backing into opposition goalkeepers and deploying NFL-style blocking to leave defenders stranded and attackers ready to nod the ball home.

But now it seems such methods are being shoved out of the game as the latest rules refresh, designed to help video technology run smoother, looks to outlaw blocking and obstructing at set-pieces – or at least referee it more stringently, The Times reports.

Mikel Arteta might find himself rushing back to the drawing board on the eve of the new Premier League season after a VAR shake-up

Set-piece mastermind Nicolas Jover has coached the Gunners on set-piece secrets and to great effect 

Arsenal have benefitted from holding at set-pieces including in April’s north London derby win

Holding is a well-established offence in football which involves a player impeding an opponent’s movement through contact with his body.

For the 2024-25 campaign, officials will be keeping a keen eye on sustained and impactful holding, obvious non-footballing impacts on an opposition player’s movement, and any clear impact on an opponent’s ability to play the ball.

This all looks set to leave Arsenal scrambling for a plan B as they aim to go one better than the previous two seasons and finally clinch the Premier League title.

Last year it was noticeable that whenever the side had a set-piece, the ever-active Arteta took a step back in the technical area and Jover took his space, issuing instructions. 

The pair’s relationship began when the Spaniard introduced Jover to Manchester City after he had taken notice of his work at Brentford.

The pair, who both speak English, French and Spanish, had hit it off immediately when they met after Arteta, then the city assistant coach, reached out to the Frenchman.

Jover is given multiple sessions during the week to drill his various methods. It was he who convinced the Gunners boss to put Declan Rice on delivering corner-kicks during the Dubai winter camp.

And over the past few years, the new methods have been drilled so well into the players that it is almost second nature to create a sense of chaos in the box which is one of Jover’s aims.

Against Spurs, Ben White backed himself into Guglielmo Vicario for Arsenal’s second

Against West Ham, Gabriel opened the scoring through a clever set-piece routine

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta celebrates the Spurs victory with Jover (centre) and Carlos Cuesta 

While the marginal gains from set-pieces have resulted in clinching narrow victories or even blowing sides away in recent times, not everyone has been impressed with the tactics.

Writing for the Mail in May, Graeme Souness said: ‘We are witnessing a stealthy, very deliberate, strategy from Arsenal – and Ben White in particular – to obstruct goalkeepers in a way which will avoid detection by the referees. 

‘Call me old-fashioned but what we’re seeing here is cheating. This blocking by players from set-pieces is more prevalent than ever before, which presents a challenge for referees. 

‘But Arsenal do this every game and it’s always by White, so the penny should have dropped long ago. Arsenal have been using this pattern of offending ever since the set-piece coach, Nicholas Jover, joined Mikel Arteta at Arsenal. That was two seasons ago.’

Well the former Liverpool man has now had his way, after the latest adjustments to the league’s guidance for officials seems to have strongly taken his advice.

Among other tweaks, the shake-up will also see the inception of an ‘umpire’s-call’ style system, similar to that in cricket, to end the forensic nature of VAR.

From this season, referees will only be overturning clear errors as opposed to slight disagreements in the interpretation of the game’s laws.

This calls back to the original ‘clear and obvious error’ mantra which was an original stipulation of the video referee system when it was first introduced five years ago.

Jover, right, impressed Arteta by transforming Brentford’s set pieces leading to him introducing the set piece coach to Manchester City

Big VAR decisions are to be replayed on the big screen in stadiums in a new shake-up

And referees will now only be called over to the pitchside monitor for subjective calls

There should also be more clarity for fans attending matches this campaign with VAR decision which have overturned goals or ended in red cards now to be replayed on the big screen in stadiums.

A new match centre social media account will also explain decisions in real time and show such clips, while the Premier League also hope to trial referees announcing decisions to the crowd.

And referees will now only be called over to the pitchside monitor for subjective calls with the incident set to be replayed at full speed to begin with before slow-motion clips are played.