The stat that sums up why this season’s title race may already be Arsenal’s to lose

The Gunners are already four points clear at the top

The weekend couldn't have been more perfect for the Gunners.

Not only did the north Londoners secure all three points against an in form Crystal Palace side, but Arteta's squad did so while all of their closest rivals dropped points.

Defending champions Liverpool have fallen seven points behind first place, while Man City are just one point better off in fifth.

In the more than five years that Mikel Arteta has managed Arsenal, the Gunners have never been in a better position to win their first Premier League title in two decades.

At current, Arsenal's closest rivals for the Premier League title are Bournemouth, closely followed by Spurs and newly promoted Sunderland.

While the season is still only nine games old, the quality within both Man City and Liverpool's squads will eventually see them reestablish their positions as Arsenal's closest rivals.

That's why, beyond actual results, it's the underlying stats behind Sunday's Premier League football that sum up Arsenal's supremacy this season.

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Between kick off at the Emirates Stadium at 2pm on Sunday, and the end of Spurs 3-0 triumph over Everton just after 6pm, a seismic shift in the power balance at the top of the Premier League had taken place.

One stats tells the story: every team that won a game on Sunday did so as the result of at least one set piece goal, and over the full weekend there were 9 set piece goals across the 12 matches.

Credit for the rise in set piece reliance has been immediately attributed to the influence of Arteta's side.

Gunners fans have been quick to point out that the team known informally as "Set Piece FC" are now setting the standard for the style of football that wins Premier League games.

Both steely in their defensive determination and unstoppable from set plays, the Gunners are setting the standard.

The results speak for themselves. Arsenal top the table having scored 69% of their goals from set pieces, and they have now gone 385 minutes without conceding a goal in the Premier League.

This weekend's fixtures are far from an outlier, in fact they sum up a huge shift that's been occurring all season.

Since the 2025/26 campaign began back in August, 19% of all goals scored have come from corners, which is the biggest proportion at this stage of any season in Premier League history.

When Pep Guardiola first arrived in England a decade ago, fans were quick to see the rapid influence his teams had.

As the Citizens roared to four successive titles from 2019 to 2024, teams right across the English football pyramid adopted a "Guardiola style," by playing out from the back with a focus on possession-based, technical, and attacking play.

Now it seems as though Arsenal are setting the standard on how to win, and other sides are "copying."

Nothing sums this change up more than when Arsenal and Man City met earlier this season.

Rather than attempting to outplay the Gunners with their typical expansive style and overlapping fullbacks, City scored an early goal and more or less parked the bus.

By the time that 90 minutes were up, the ten time champions recorded the lowest possession share (33.2%) of any game in Pep Guardiola's managerial career.

While Arsenal's new influence cannot be denied, it remains to be seen whether Arne Slot's Liverpool or Guardiola can uncover the key tactical change to overcoming them in the next few months.