While there is still plenty of mileage left in this season’s Premier League title race, Arsenal remain favorites to hoist the trophy aloft and end their 22-year wait to be champions of England once more.
Heading into this weekend’s games in the middle of January, the Gunners are six points clear of Manchester City and Aston Villa with 21 matches played, having topped the table after every round of fixtures since the start of October.
Arsenal missed the chance to fully extend their lead at the summit after a drab 0-0 draw against Liverpool in their last league outing but they are still very much in pole position. Mikel Arteta’s side have won more league games (15) than any other Premier League side this season and have the second-highest tally of goals scored in the division (40, five fewer than City).
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The football being played is undeniably consistent and effective, but even the most partisan fan must admit that the Gunners have relied heavily on scoring goals from set pieces. Indeed, they are comfortably outperforming their title rivals when it comes to racking up goals from dead-ball situations such as free kicks and corners, as well as own goals.
So far, Arsenal have scored 24 goals from set pieces in all competitions this season — the most by any team in Europe’s top five leagues. During Wednesday’s Carabao Cup clash at Chelsea, they scored their 18th goal from a corner of the 2025-26 campaign.
In the Premier League, with 21 games now played this season, the Gunners have a higher percentage of set-piece goals and own goals than any team’s title-winning campaign in the history of the competition. Arteta’s outfit have scored 14 Premier League goals from set pieces so far this season, which account for 35% of their total goal haul, and benefited from three own goals being scored in their favor — 7.5% of their total goals.
This means that, as things stand, Arsenal of 2025-26 are on course to become the most set-pieciest, own-goaliest champions in Premier League history.
With over a third of their goals in this league campaign to date coming from set pieces, Arsenal command a higher percentage than any Premier League title-winning side on record, with Manchester United’s 2007-08 champions providing the closest competition (27.5%) in that regard.
United are also the team to beat when it comes to own-goal assistance, with Sir Alex Ferguson’s 1996-97 side having benefited from six own goals (a whopping 7.89% of their 76-goal tally) scored for them by opposing teams en route to lifting the title — a joint-high amount for a Premier League-winning team.
In fact, that record is jointly held with … Manchester United, who also had six own goals scored in their favor on the way to lifting the trophy in 2012-13. In what proved to be Fergie’s farewell year at Old Trafford, United also set a record for the most set-piece goals (23) scored in a single season by the Premier League champions — a tally that Arsenal look set to surpass this campaign.
Chelsea scored the most penalties of any Premier League champions when they racked up 11 penalties in 2010-11, though Claudio Ranieri’s Leicester City mustered the largest penalty percentage on record after a whopping 14.71% of their total goals (10 penalties from 68 goals) came from the spot as they pulled off their 5,000-1 title win in 2015-16.
For the record, Arsenal have scored only three spot kicks in the league so far this term, which is 7.5% of their goals. So they have some catching up to do if they want to be the most set-pieciest, own-goaliest AND most penaltyist champions of all time.
