Manchester United, Chelsea and Stoke were all brilliant with the dead ball last season…
Fanatix takes a look at how many set-pieces each club scored in the Premier League last season, and analyses what the results tell us about the tactics of some of England’s top sides.
Goals scored from set-pieces in the Premier League 2012/13:
1) Manchester United – 26
2) Chelsea – 24
3) Stoke – 18
4) Manchester City – 18
5) Norwich – 18
6) Reading – 17
7) Arsenal – 17
8) Liverpool – 16
9) West Ham – 16
10) Sunderland – 15
11) Wigan – 14
12) Fulham – 14
13) West Brom – 14
14) Aston Villa – 13
15) Everton – 12
16) Southampton – 11
17) Newcastle – 10
18) Tottenham – 10
19) QPR – 7
20) Swansea – 5
Analysis:
– Manchester United scored more goals than anyone from set-pieces last season, mainly thanks to the outstanding deliveries from Wayne Rooney and Robin Van Persie from corners, which led to a huge 15 goals.
-Chelsea scored nine league penalties, more than anyone in the league, which helped them to second place in the set-piece goals table.
-The top three clubs in the real Premier League table, Manchester United, Manchester City and Chelsea all finished in the top three in the set-piece table. It pays to score from dead ball situations.
-Spurs and Swansea didn’t score a single penalty season, which is a major reason for them scoring from so few set-pieces. The passing brand of football both teams played last year also meant they were more inclined to score from open play than from dead ball situations.
-Unsurprisingly, Stoke scored more goals from set-pieces than any other side apart from United and Chelsea. Tony Pulis set his team out to be strong, physical and aggressive. They also launched nearly every freekick into the box whereas other teams often played it short instead. Stoke also scored three goals from their famous long throw, whereas no other club scored more than one.
-The other team who play this brand of football in the Premier League, West Ham, would hope to score more set-pieces next year with Andy Carroll waiting in the box.
-Norwich scored four goals direct from freekicks, thanks to Robert Snodgrass, but QPR, Stoke and West Brom failed to score one.
Stats courtesy of Squawka.
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