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Manchester City have not scored from a set-piece yet this season, going very much against the Premier League trend
"Football is the same, 11 against 11."
A simple statement from one of the game's greatest managers. Pep Guardiola has reinvented football more than once, from his pass masters to four central defenders to inverted full-backs and false nines. Much of the modern Premier League lexicon can be traced back to the Manchester City manager.
But this season's trend is one Guardiola and City are happy to acknowledge but reticent to buckle to.
Set-pieces have become the talk of the top flight this term, sparked by league leaders Arsenal who have scored 11 of their 16 league goals from set-pieces. The Gunners are not alone, 19% of all Premier League goals this term have been scored from corners and that figure rises to 27% for all set-plays.
Along with the Gunners, the likes of Tottenham and Brentford have been exploiting the set-piece advantage.
Not so City. The Blues have scored 17 goals in the league this season, the joint highest, and all have been from open play. You won't find Guardiola changing tack to fit in with the latest fad.
The set-piece fashion is not particularly hurting City at the other end either, they nullified that threat at Arsenal and did so again at Brentford. Matty Cash's winner for Aston Villa on Sunday was the first set-piece goal City have conceded this term, and even that came with a slight caveat given it wasn't a direct delivery into the box but a short corner that involved six Villa touches before the ball hit the City net.
No side has conceded fewer set-piece goals in the Premier League than City's one, and while not finding the net from a set-piece feels an obvious area for the Blues to exploit, Guardiola won't be putting any extra focus on breaking that duck.
Every manager does what they believe," said Guardiola. "I'm focused on that, I want to score from free-kicks and corners - I'm not naïve to that. I want it.
"But I spend my time on what we have to do to play better, attack better and create chances. To score goals. Defensively you have to be more aggressive. All the aspects of the game I see. Of course I pay attention but I know I’m not the manager to try to… it’s what I’ve done all my career.
"It would be naïve to say I don't pay attention. Of course I don't want to concede the goals and most of the goals come from these kind of actions. I'm pretty sure the people spend a lot of time there. The goal we conceded at Aston Villa was a corner.
"Maybe it didn't happen [much] when I arrived, maybe at Burnley, but now it's a fact. And you have to pay attention.
"But still I dream to work a lot and play."
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