Gary Neville has described Arsenal set-piece coach Nicolas Jover as “the most annoying bloke in football” after the Gunners beat Man Utd 2-0 on Wednesday night.
After Thomas Partey and Gabriel Martinelli both missed good chances from corners in the first-half, Jurrien Timber opened the scoring for Arsenal with a header from a corner on 59 minutes.
Joshua Zirkzee almost scored an own-goal from another brilliant Gunners corner before yet another brilliant delivery from a corner saw William Saliba turn in Arsenal’ second goal of the game on 73 minutes.
Man Utd had kept Arsenal at bay in the first half, after beating Everton 4-0 over the weekend, but the Gunners outclassed them in the second half to close the gap to seven points on Premier League leaders Liverpool.
And after witnessing Arsenal pummel Man Utd with corner after corner, Neville claimed Gunners set-piece coach Jover has “got to be the most annoying bloke in football”.
Speaking on a live watchalong for The Overlap, Neville said: “The set-piece coach at Arsenal, he’s got to be the most annoying bloke in football.
“He’s got to be, hasn’t he? He’s got to be though, hasn’t he?”
Fellow pundit Jamie Carragher added: “I’ll tell you what, give him what he wants.
“If you was that set-piece coach for Arsenal, you could write your own contract, couldn’t you? You couldn’t get rid of him.
“You know, if he said, “I want 25 grand a week”, you’d have to give it to him, wouldn’t you?”
Speaking about Jover’s role at Arsenal earlier this week, Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta said: “He’s a very special person and obviously someone very close to me. I went to war for him at City because I felt there was a big room for improvement in that department.
“I contacted him and I suggested to Pep (for him) to come and help us. Since then we’ve been extremely close.
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“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.
“There are a lot of other people who put a lot of effort and thought and hours into that, but for sure he is someone who is very, very important for the team.”
Another set-piece analyst Mads Buttgereit has previously described Jover – who Arsenal poached from Man City – as a “genius”.
Buttgereit told Sky Sports: “I always had a passion for set-pieces but at that point I was still a normal coach, in a normal coaching role. I think, after meeting him, I began to see myself more as a set-piece specialist.
“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.”
