Firstly, they struggle to take corners at the new stadium because of the gradient in the corners of the pitch. If you look at the photograph below you can see that only a yard or so from the white line the grass ends and the Astro-turf begins. At this same point the pitch runs down hill quite significantly. If you watch van Persie take a corner, he has to start his run up from about a foor below pitch level.
Apparently, the dimensions of the training pitches at London Colney have been adjusted in order to reflect the Grove. So in real terms the players are training on pitches the same size as at the new stadium, but the training pitches do not have the same gradient for the corner takers to deal with. So they don't practice taking corners on these slopes and then have to during games... no wonder they struggle to get the ball beyond the near post!
The second point I'd like to make is that apparently Arsenal hardly ever practice corners on the training ground. I have it on good authority that Wenger hardly ever gets them practicing corners in either attacking or defensive situtations. I found it hard to believe when I heard this but I trust the source and thought I'd share the information.
I suppose that I'm not as concerned at the lack of practicing corners in defensive situations but I'm more worried that they don't have any more ideas in attacking positions. Chelsea on the other hand are the Premiership's top scorers from corners and on paper I wouldn't say that their players are better headers of the ball, so why the difference in efficiency in this area? Very rarely do Arsenal create a genuine goal scoring opportunity from a corner and Arsene need look no further than Arsenal's past for inspiration. There were two things George Graham's teams were good at and they were defending one nil leads and scoring from corners. The current Arsenal team need as many goals as they can get and I hope this deficiency is addressed as soon as possible.
