Premier League Stats Review: Gameweek 4 Set Piece and Penalty Takers

Premier League Stats Review: Gameweek 4 Set Piece and Penalty Takers

This article is part of our Premier League Stats Review series.

Is there anything more 2020 than "Ross Barkley has a monopoly of set pieces?" After joining Aston Villa on a season-long loan from Chelsea, who he made zero Premier League starts for this season, Barkley started his first game for his new club and promptly took all of their corners and free kicks, leaving Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane, who he started for, and John McGinn in his dust. It obviously worked out wonderfully for Villa, who beat Liverpool 7-2, with Barkley scoring a goal. The Aston Villa set-piece situation has been fluid since they re-joined the Premier League last season, but Barkley taking all of their opportunities would surely clear that up.

We saw a few other first-time (at least for this season) set-piece takers, including Adam Lallana   and Joel Veltman for Brighton, who also had Lewis Dunk take a free-kick shot, which he's wont to do every so often. We also saw Ben Chilwell take seven of Chelsea's eight corners in their win over Crystal Palace, but it's worth noting that neither Mason Mount nor Reece James played. Chelsea have an abundance of set-piece takers, and we haven't even seen Hakim Ziyech or Christian Pulisic this season. 

There is one big development is at Everton, who seem to be done with Lucas Digne on dead balls. Not only did James Rodriguez continue to take corners and free kicks this past weekend against Brighton, but even Gylfi Sigurdsson took one! Sigurdsson was rumored to be moving to MLS this fall but never got his move, and while he's certainly not a regular sterter when Allan, Andre Gomes and Abdoulaye Doucoure are fit, he's apparently a set-piece threat when he does get the minutes. Digne has now gone two games without a corner, and this past weekend was the first time he didn't get a free-kick cross either. He's still a solid creator from his left-back spot, but no free kicks would certainly limit his fantasy production.

Manchester United let Luke Shaw take three free kicks, which seems like a nice present before he's glued to the bench thanks to the addition of Alex Telles from FC Porto. Telles was Porto's primary set-piece taker and would surely be the No. 2 guy for Manchester United, but it's tough to see Bruno Fernandes giving up too many of those chances; the possibility that they split sides is there though.

Note: all columns are sortable.

Legend: MIN = minutes, CRN = corners taken, FK CR = free-kick cross, FK S = free-kick shots

If you'd like to see a match-by-match breakdown for each team, check out our Team Trends pages.

Gameweek 4 Corners and Free Kicks

PlayerTeamOPPH/AFormPOSMINCRNCRNCRFKCRFKS
WillianARSSHUH433FWR902200
Ross BarkleyAVLLIVH4231AMC902110
Solomon MarchBHAEVEA3421ML903100
Adam LallanaBHAEVEA3421SUB243100
Leandro TrossardBHAEVEA3421AMC902000
Joel VeltmanBHAEVEA3421SUB451000
Pascal GrossBHAEVEA3421SUB81100
Lewis DunkBHAEVEA3421DC900001
Ashley WestwoodBRNNEWA442MC902210
Dwight McNeilBRNNEWA442ML902210
Ben ChilwellCHECRYH4231DL907710
Timo WernerCHECRYH4231AML901000
Callum Hudson-OdoiCHECRYH4231AMR830010
Andros TownsendCRYCHEA442MR904420
Eberechi EzeCRYCHEA442ML901010
Luka MilivojevicCRYCHEA442SUB230010
James RodriguezEVEBHAH433FWR782110
Gylfi SigurdssonEVEBHAH433MC901100
Joe BryanFULWOLA4231AML671110
Ademola LookmanFULWOLA4231SUB231000
Tom CairneyFULWOLA4231DMC900010
Ivan CavaleiroFULWOLA4231AMR670010
Neeskens KebanoFULWOLA4231SUB90001
Kalvin PhillipsLEEMCIH4141DMC907500
Youri TielemansLEIWHUH343MC906610
Cengiz UnderLEIWHUH343SUB350010
Andrew RobertsonLIVAVLA433DL904300
Trent Alexander-ArnoldLIVAVLA433DR902101
James MilnerLIVAVLA433SUB221100
Kevin De BruyneMCILEEA433MC905531
Riyad MahrezMCILEEA433FW774400
Bernardo SilvaMCILEEA433SUB251100
Luke ShawMUNTOTH4231DL901120
Bruno FernandesMUNTOTH4231AMC451100
Jonjo ShelveyNEWBRNH442MC902100
Ryan FraserNEWBRNH442SUB171000
John LundstramSHUARSA352MC902200
John FleckSHUARSA352SUB272200
Ben OsbornSHUARSA352MC630010
James Ward-ProwseSOUWBAH442MC905420
Ryan BertrandSOUWBAH442DL900010
Son Heung-MinTOTMUNA433FWL732200
Sergio ReguilonTOTMUNA433DL901010
Erik LamelaTOTMUNA433FWR451101
Matheus PereiraWBASOUA4231AMC901050
Jarrod BowenWHULEIA541MR883300
Aaron CresswellWHULEIA541DC901120
Pedro NetoWOLFULH352MC824200
Joao MoutinhoWOLFULH352SUB191110
Daniel PodenceWOLFULH352FW711100
Ruben NevesWOLFULH352MC900001

And speaking of Bruno, he unsurprisingly took Manchester United's penalty in their loss to Tottenham, maintaining his perfect Premier League record from the spot. Additionally, Jorginho bagged TWO penalties, so his miss earlier this season hasn't pushed him off those quite yet. Harry Kane and Callum Wilson also scored for Spurs and Newcastle, respectively, prompting no changes from our expectations.

Gameweek 4 Penalties

PlayerTeamOPPH/AFormPOSMINPKPKGPKMPKSVD
JorginhoCHECRYH4231DMC902200
Bruno FernandesMUNTOTH4231AMC451100
Harry KaneTOTMUNA433FW901100
Callum WilsonNEWBRNH442FW901100

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Andrew M. Laird plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: FanDuel: kingmorland, DraftKings: andrewmlaird, Yahoo: Lairdinho.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Andrew M. Laird
Andrew is a former RotoWire contributor. He was the 2017 and 2018 FSWA Soccer Writer of the Year. He is a nine-time FSWA award finalist, including twice for Football Writer of the Year.
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