THOMAS FRANK will have a chance today to see just how far his new Tottenham side have come on set-pieces when they take on the masters of the craft.
No one scored more goals from dead-ball situations, excluding penalties, in the Premier League last season than Arsenal, who face North London rivals Spurs in Hong Kong this lunchtime.
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The Gunners netted a whopping 17 times from those scenarios, inspired by their set-piece specialist coach Nicolas Jover.
German-born Frenchman Jover, 43, fast became a household name among Gooners for the way he leaps into action, barking orders from Mikel Arteta’s technical area whenever Arsenal get a free-kick or corner.
Frank has his own grand plans to turn Spurs into set-piece experts – and has hired an ex-Gunners coach to help him do it.
Andreas Georgson spent a year as Arteta’s set-piece coach between 2020 and 2021, having left Frank’s Brentford to take up the position.
The Swede, 43, was replaced by Jover before going on to hold similar roles at Southampton and Manchester United, as well as more senior roles back in Scandinavia.
Georgson’s latest gig is at Spurs, where he became part of Frank’s new-look coaching staff that was announced earlier this month.
He holds the title of first-team assistant coach, but his specific focus will be set-pieces.
Frank excelled from the routines at Brentford, netting 14 league goals from them last term and conceding a Prem-best three.
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It is not just from corners and free-kicks that he looks to gain an advantage, either.
Fans will remember how his Bees, remarkably, scored virtually from the kick-off in three successive games last September.
The remarkable hat-trick saw them make Premier League history by becoming the first team to net within the first minute in a trio of back-to-back fixtures.
Long throws are also something he is happy to employ, with footage from Destiny Udogie’s Snapchat appearing to reveal Spurs have held ‘long throw auditions’ in pre-season training.
Centre-back Micky van de Ven is hoping all the extra work on dead-ball situations will pay off this season.
The Dutchman, 24, said on Tuesday: “We have had a lot of training sessions already where we are working on set-pieces. I know you guys love talking about set-pieces and Tottenham.
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“I hope we can change that this year and make it a strong point for us on the offensive and defensive side.”
The “I know you guys love talking about set-pieces and Tottenham” remark related to the furore surrounding them under predecessor Ange Postecoglou.
In truth, it was a mountain made out of a molehill by Postecoglou himself, and it came after a North London derby defeat to today’s opponents.
Spurs conceded twice from corners in their 3-2 home loss to Arsenal in April 2024, during Postecoglou’s first campaign.
At the time, it took the club’s tally of goals conceded from set-pieces to nine, which was not terrible but not great either. It just required an acknowledgement that things could have been improved and a promise to work on them.
Postecoglou instead appeared to dismiss set-pieces altogether after the game, then doubled down on that view again a few days later in his next press conference.
After that, a narrative emerged that he did not care about them at all, which was brought up every time Spurs subsequently conceded from a dead-ball situation, not including spot-kicks.
Frank has been very clear about how much he values them and spoke of his pride after his new team scored their first goals under him from set-pieces in his opening friendly, a 2-0 win at Reading, earlier this month.
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Arsenal set the bar for success in this area – today Spurs can get an early idea of how they measure up at the Kai Tak Stadium today.
They will do it, meanwhile, wearing kit with bespoke, jazzy-looking shirt numbers designed by local artists.
‘ParentsParents’, a collective of artists from diverse backgrounds in graffiti, illustration and geometry style character, designed the numbers, using themes, colours and symbols meaningful to Hong Kong.
You can put your shirt on set-pieces playing a key role in today’s friendly version of the North London derby on the far side of the world.