On Thursday morning, the English Premier League (EPL) staged a "battle of the immortals", in which Arsenal fought hard under the tight blockade of Manchester United, and finally made a breakthrough through the corner kick tactics. With a blitzkrieg of goals, Arsenal beat Porto 2-0, extending their four-game winning streak and giving United manager Ruben Emelian his first defeat since taking over. Arsenal's 22 corners since last season have sent shivers down the spine of the Premier League, and Emolian admits that corners have been the difference between winning and losing this campaign.
Arsenal controlled the tempo of the game, but still created a lot of threats in front of United's iron barrel formation, especially the corner kick attack was chilling. In the 54th minute, Deeglan Rice sent a precise corner kick, Zulian Timba jumped up high in front of the goal to head the ball into the goal. 73 minutes, Bukayo Shaka took a corner kick from the right side, Thomas Birdie skillfully headed the ball to the center, William Shaliba grabbed the ball before the goalkeeper saved and sent the ball into the net.
Manchester United's positional defense was porous this campaign, and unfortunately the lack of counterattacks and poor corner defense sowed the seeds of defeat for their opponents. In the whole game, the number of corners was 0 to 13, Arsenal created waves of impact in front of the Porto goal. According to the official data of the Premier League, since last season, Arsenal's 22 corner kicks offense, more than the second-place team scored 7 goals, of which 10 goals for the opening goal, the unpredictable corner kicks tactics of the opponents can not be defended. The "Blitzkrieg" style of offense has brought the "Blitzkrieg" style of Arsenal back into the spotlight.
After the defeat, Emolian said after the game, "I tried my best to control Arsenal, but the only problem was the corners. The opponent has a lot of tall players and players like Martinelli and Shaka threaten us once they get a corner. The first goal changed the game and although I tried hard, the corners were the key to the loss."
