Ex-Liverpool coach calls out Arsenal and former team for ‘ugly’ play as new trend emerges

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There was a time, not long ago, when long throw-ins were sneered at and seen as a tactic beneath the top teams.

“You cannot say it is football anymore,” complained Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in 2010 during the era of Rory Delap’s missiles at Stoke.

Stats from Opta reveal that there have been 172 long throws into the penalty area in 50 games this season, an average of 3.4 per match – over double any over season in the past decade.

West Ham are the only Premier League side not to attempt a long throw into the box, while Brentford, Burnley, Crystal Palace and Newcastle have all scored from one.

Tuchel’s assistant Anthony Barry did his university dissertation on long throws in the Premier League, so he should know the direction of travel after 20 throw-in goals were recorded in the 2024/25 Premier League season, having not reached doubles figures in the previous four campaigns.

Another man who is well-placed to comment is Thomas Gronnemark, the world’s only professional throw-in coach.

Gronnemark travels the world spreading the gospel of throw-ins and is best known for working with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool from 2018 to 2023.

Surprisingly, he isn’t entirely delighted by the rise in long throws, believing that many top sides are simply jumping on the bandwagon without properly training them.

“You can say there are many more long throw-ins in the Premier League.

Yeah, it can work but your players have to learn to think throw-ins.”

Gronnemark has been working with Brentford, who stand out as the kings of the throw-in in the Premier League, having put 23 into the opponents’ penalty area this season, resulting in one goal, 11 shots and 1.29 xG.

Even with the biggest teams in the Premier League, you can see that if they make one move and it doesn’t work then the players don’t know what to do – they’re getting confused, frustrated because they don’t have a high throw-in intelligence.”

Set pieces are more important than ever, attributing for 27.7 per cent of non-penalty goals in the Premier League this season, more than any campaign in the past 15 years.

Arsenal’s success from corners under coach Nicolas Jover has been well documented and long throws could represent the new frontier.