Chelsea have made “concerted effort” in last two weeks to improve on this weakness according to journalist

Chelsea have been focused on improving their set pieces as they take on specialists Arsenal, according to the Evening Standard.

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Chelsea face Arsenal today, knowing that the Gunners’ biggest weapon is their set pieces.

To that end, the Blues have made a “concerted effort” over the last two weeks to work on defending those situations in training, according to Dom Smith of the Evening Standard.

Arsenal have scored more from set pieces than any other team in the Premier League, but the Blues did a solid job in their recent two legged Carabao Cup semi final.

We even saw the emerging tactic of leaving more players forward when defending corners or wide free kicks. We’re really keen to see that used again today.

Chelsea’s set piece coach under the microscope as poor record continues

Bernardo Cueva speaks to Enzo Fernandez in preseason.

Chelsea’s defensive numbers in these situations are not great this season, and that’s a dangerous match up with Arsenal’s strength. We can see why the Blues have been focused on working on this.

“When you concede a goal from a set play pretty much in the last minute that costs you two points, you obviously want to address that,” Liam Rosenior said after Burnley’s last minute equaliser last week.

If they concede again, a lot of negative attention will be on set piece coach Bernardo Cuevo, who has been good at getting us scoring from those situations but hasn’t been as successful defensively.

In other news…

Chelsea are having a lot of the problems Arsenal did 20 years ago, while the Gunners have morphed into a sort of version of Chelsea back then. It’s a funny reversal – and not one that’s good for Chelsea.

Check out the latest edition of Simon Phillips’ SPTC podcast here: