Paris Saint-Germain boss Luis Enrique has compared Arsenal’s ability from set-pieces to that of Liverpool and is not planning on spending extra time pouring over the Gunners’ routines
Luis Enrique has brushed off any concern over Arsenal’s set-piece threat and suggested he will prepare his Paris Saint-Germain side for the Gunners like they are any other team. PSG will make the trip to the Emirates next week as the teams compete for a place in the Champions League final.
The French champions will face English opposition in the third consecutive round after dispatching both Aston Villa and Liverpool already. Arsenal and PSG met during the group stage of the competition and the north London side came away 2-0 victors.
On that night, goals from Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka proved the difference. The latter netted after his curling free-kick avoided a number of bodies before bouncing past Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Enrique sees no cause for concern however, and believes the likes of Liverpool pose just as much threat from a deadball. “We will prepare in the same way as we did against Liverpool,” Enrique said when questioned about the threat Arsenal pose from set-pieces.
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“Liverpool are a team that has at least as much potential as Arsenal, if not more. Aston Villa also had great potential in this area, as do the majority of Ligue 1 teams. We will not prepare our team based on this aspect of the game in particular. But it is obvious that we must be competitive everywhere.”
However, Enrique’s faith in Liverpool’s set-pieces may be misplaced. Despite a dominant run to being on the verge of becoming champions the Reds have not been a shining example of prowess in that area.
Per WhoScored, Liverpool have scored just six times from set-pieces throughout the 2024/25 season, in contrast to Arsenal’s 13. Only the Premier League’s bottom three and Fulham have netted fewer.
Liverpool boss Arne Slot reckons time is the key difference between his side and Arsenal’s results, however.
The Dutchman said: “The work that we put in is that we’ve trained a lot, we’ve had a lot of meetings about it, we try every single time to improve the details and I think it’s normal for a coaching staff that’s only for nine or 10 months with that team that it doesn’t come from the first week.
“I always say that if I am analysing an opponent, if they have their set-pieces perfect I know the manager is already there for a long time because normally you start with bringing the ball out from the back and how to defend and all these kind of things, and the end of that process is set-pieces.
“And I think Arsenal are a great example of that, where Mikel [Arteta] has worked so long and they are so good in all different phases of the game and now they have become world-class at set-pieces.”
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