“He’s Arteta’s secret weapon and most valuable asset in the team, we see him as the team leader and mentor, he told Arteta to sub off Declan Rice in the 70th minute”- Arsenal star Bukayo Saka praises Arsenal’s secret weapon which Mikel Arteta hijacked from Pep Guardiola at Man City- Not Rice, Not Zinchenko and not Magalhaes

Bukayo Saka praises Arsenal’s secret weapon Mikel Arteta poached from Man City

Arsenal thrashed Crystal Palace 5-0 on Saturday, with the Gunners’ first two goals coming from set-pieces which star Bukayo Saka has credited to coach Nicolas Jover

Bukayo Saka has heaped praise on Arsenal’s set-piece Nicolas Jover, who Mikel Arteta poached from rivals Manchester City.

The German-born French coach has proven to be a valuable asset since his move to North London in 2021, linking up with former colleague Arteta after they both worked together under Pep Guardiola at City, with Jover having previously worked for Brentford, the Croatian national team and French side Montpellier. The 42-year-old tactician has been labelled a “genius” by insiders and received public plaudits on numerous occasions.

On Saturday, it was Saka’s turn to dish out praise following Arsenal’s emphatic 5-0 win at home to struggling Crystal Palace. “We do a lot of work on set pieces,” the Gunners winger told TNT Sports. “It’s the worst, it’s the worst! Nico, our set-piece coach, does a really good job though, he tries to make it fun and he’s enjoying it. What he’s doing is clearly working so we’ll have to continue doing it.”

Saka went on to say: “We work on everything and we want to dominate every phase of play. We want to be the best team in the world so you have to be the best in everything. We can still do better so we will continue to work on everything that can make us better.”

In November, Leandro Trossard – who scored in the much-needed victory over Palace – said of Jover: “It’s a pleasure to work with him. He’s really clever on set-pieces. It’s such a great aspect in the game where you can open up a game. It helped us already a lot.

“We need to keep improving but we train on it as much as possible. When you play every three days there’s not much time to work on it but we will always squeeze it in but it’s in the general game plan.”

Arsenal hired Jover in the summer of 2021 to replace the outgoing Andreas Gorgson, who’d made the decision to return to his native Sweden and become Malmo’s sporting director. Explaining the appointment, Arteta revealed: “After looking through what the best solution would be, a person that I know was on the market was available.

He is someone whose expertise are incredibly useful and valuable for us. He’s joining us. His name is Nicolas Jover and I’ve worked with him before at City.”

Jover has done exactly what Arteta expected and now with Arsenal just two points off the top of the Premier League table, there’s positivity at the Emirates once again. “They are great players, we have a great team and today they really wanted it. I could feel that,” Arteta added after Saturday’s win. “It was a win with a clean sheet and we scored five goals which we really needed.