In the Premier League, Arsenal defeated his old team, Manchester United, and Gary Neville called their set-piece “genius,” Nicolas Jover, the “most annoying bloke in football.”
Arsenal’s skill with set pieces was once again on full display as the north London team proved to be too formidable for United, winning 2-0 with goals from William Saliba and Jurrien Timber.
Last time out, Manchester United defeated Everton 4-0 to give new manager Ruben Amorim his first Premier League victory. Although they held Arsenal at bay in the first half, they were outplayed after the break.
The defeat leaves United in the bottom-half of the Premier League table after 14 games while Arsenal close the gap on leaders Liverpool to seven points.
Neville watched Arsenal vs Manchester United live on a watchalong on The Overlap and took aim at Gunners set-piece coach Jover, who has been instrumental to the club’s success this season.
Arsenal has more goals from corners than any other Premier League team this season, and Arteta acknowledged Jover is “very, very important” to the team prior to United’s visit.
“The set-piece coach at Arsenal, he’s got to be the most annoying bloke in football,” claimed Neville, a former Manchester United and England defender, who has yet to be won over by Jover.
He must be, is he not? However, hasn’t he got to be?
Jamie Carragher, a legend of Liverpool, said of Jover after Arsenal scored from yet another corner: “Give him what he wants.”
“You could write your own contract if you were that set-piece coach for Arsenal, wouldn’t you?” You were unable to get rid of him.
You would have to give it to him if he said, “I want twenty-five thousand dollars a week,” wouldn’t you?
Jover, 43, was taken from Manchester City by Arteta soon after he took over at Arsenal.
Earlier this week, Arteta spoke to the team about his involvement and stated: “He’s a very special person and obviously someone very close to me.”
Because I thought there was a lot of space for improvement in that area, I went to fight for him at City.
I reached out to him and recommended that Pep come assist us. Since then, we have remained quite close.
We share a clear vision of how we want to put everything together, about how everything is connected, aligned and can work efficiently in our team.
“He is definitely someone who is very, very important for the team, even though there are many other people who put a lot of effort, thought, and hours into that.”
Former set-piece analyst Mads Buttgereit has called French coach Jover, who was born in Germany, a “genius.”
He told Sky Sports, “At that time, I was still a normal coach, in a normal coaching role, even though I always had a passion for set-pieces.” I believe I started to regard myself more as a set-piece specialist once I met him.
Nicolas is a genius in the way he thinks and the way he creates the plans. Sitting with him and discussing different set-plays, you feel everything has an exact thought behind it.
‘There are no coincidences at any point in any routine. Whenever we discussed set-pieces, it was never simple. We could discuss a specific corner routine for over an hour, not a problem.
‘We would go through every aspect and go through what the opponent would then do. It was very, very detailed.
‘There are a few set-piece coaches who I know personally but, in my mind, I think Nicolas is the best. He is fantastic.’
Arteta, meantime, was gushing over his Arsenal team after they defeated Manchester United and exploited Liverpool’s small mistake in an exciting 3-3 draw with Newcastle United.
He told Amazon Prime, “I’m very happy, it was a special night in this incredible stadium.”
We deserved to win the game, in my opinion. There was a lot of energy in the stadium, but we had to replace the team because of some injuries.
We got into the second half and we changed a few things – the team was superb. The team needs every possible result to win the game – let’s continue that.’
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