Five points clear, top scorers in the league, fewest goals conceded. A Premier League record equalled for goals from corners. Two 4-1 wins against Tottenham in the same season.
Tell me what exactly does Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal have to do to get some respect?
This weekend, Arsenal beat Chelsea 2-1 with two goals from corners, extending their lead at the top to five points and equalling the all-time Premier League record of 16 corner goals in a single season a record they themselves set back in 2023/24. Patrick Vieira, a man who gave his best years to this club, watched all of that and told ESPN he would “expect more” from the side in terms of their attacking risk-taking and creativity. More?After a winning 2-1 result against Chelsea in a title race. Even when acknowledging the win, the instinct is to find something to pick at.
This is the Arsenal paradox. Win ugly and you’re boring, win beautifully and the lead isn’t enough, drop points and people call it a choke, rebuild the lead and the conversation switches to City’s game in hand. There is no version of this Arsenal season that the media seems willing to simply accept and celebrate.
Let’s talk about the corner thing because it’s become its own conversation.
Arsenal have scored 16 goals from set pieces this season. Twenty-seven percent of their total goals. Pundits across the board have made it a talking point somehow being so well drilled, so precise, so dangerous from a dead ball situation that it’s become the dominant conversation around their season.
Arsenal are the top scorers in the Premier League. They have the highest xG in the division. They have conceded the fewest goals. Arteta himself said it ten years ago in his coaching philosophy set pieces are a massive thing and he built a system to master them (Sky Sports). That’s not luck. That’s planning, that’s genius dressed up as boring.
The record they equalled this weekend? It was previously held by Oldham in 1992/93, West Brom in 2016/17, and Arsenal themselves in 2023/24. Oldham and West Brom didn’t win the title. If Arsenal do, they will be the highest corner-scoring side to lift the Premier League trophy. And people will still find a way to call it undeserved or find a way to discredit them.
The lead has swung from nine points, down to two, back up to five with City holding a game in hand (Yardbarker, February 2026). City’s away form this calendar year has been patchy at best a goalless draw at Sunderland, a 2-0 defeat at Manchester United, a 2-2 collapse at Spurs after leading 2-0 at half-time (Racing Post, February 2026). These are not the results of an unstoppable machine closing in on leaders who are crumbling. These are two imperfect teams in a genuine title race and one of them is five points clear with nine games to go.
And yet Roy Keane called Man City winning and cutting the gap a “boost” and a “hammer blow” for Arsenal on Sky Sports. Arsenal beat Spurs 4-1 days later and restored the lead. Where was the equivalent enthusiasm? Arseblog captured it well: “So much of it is just narrative. The title race was always on, it just makes for better headlines to present it as over after we beat Sunderland then back on when City win.”
That’s the media game. Arsenal winning is steady. Arsenal dropping points is a crisis. City winning is momentum. City losing is just a stumble. The framing is never neutral.
This isn’t a new phenomenon either. Arsenal have been runners-up for the past three seasons. Three seasons of being good enough to challenge and not quite enough to win. But here’s what that record actually shows in 2022/23 they were 50/1 pre-season outsiders with a squad that included players nowhere near title-winning standard. In 2023/24 they won 16 of their last 18 games and still finished two points behind City. Last season, Liverpool hit the ground at a pace nobody could match (Racing Post, February 2026). None of those campaigns were chokes. They were near misses against excellent competition.
Now Arsenal have the squad, the system, the momentum and the lead. And still the narrative finds a way to talk around them rather than about them.
Nine games left, Five point lead, the best defensive record in the division. A set piece system so good it’s broken records. A striker in Viktor Gyokeres who has not hit the ground running but has still contributed immensely and a creator in Eze who, despite all the criticism we discussed last week, keeps scoring in the biggest games.
At some point the story has to become about what Arsenal are doing rather than what they might still fail to do.
Or maybe that point only comes when they actually lift the trophy. And even then, give it five minutes.
