Why are more Premier League goals being scored from corners? Part 1.

Early-season numbers from 2025-26 show that a record 19% of all Premier League goals this season have been scored from corners, the highest share in the competition's history.

Everyone’s talking about choreographed routines, dedicated set-piece staff, goals “from the training ground.” So what are teams actually doing differently from last season to create more danger from corners?

To find out, we compared 2024–25 (full season) with 2025–26 so far (11 games) across:

• ‍Volume: We looked at total corners and corners per 90 across both seasons.‍
• Target: We focussed on end location of each corner, and divided it into 4 zones: Deliveries to Zone 17 (central), Near zone, and Deep zone (beyond Zone 17), and Short.

We look at outcomes and danger zones in Part 2. For now, let’s stick to how corners are being taken.

The league picture: less short stuff, more balls into prime attack zones

Across the division, three things have changed:

1. Short corners are down: On average, the league’s % short routines fell by about 4.1 % from last season.
2. More deliveries into centre: Teams are using corners more actively to generate shots, with deliveries to Zone 17 up over 2%
3. Deep deliveries up: Corners are more actively being used to set up knock-downs and cut-backs in the second phase

But on a club level we find more contrasting trends

1) Cutting the short routines and hitting the middle

A few sides have gone hard in one direction, less short, more central. Corners are yet another area where Pep Guardiola seems to have given up “control” in favor of being more direct.

• Man City: short deliveries down by 18%, Zone 17 ↑ 23%
• Tottenham: short deliveries down 17%, Zone 17 ↑ 21% (Thomas Frank effect?)
• Newcastle: short deliveries down 11%, Zone 17 ↑ 18%

2) Short corners haven’t disappeared

Short corners haven’t disappeared, and a few teams use them heavily to change the angle, and then deliver. Chelsea had the highest % of short corners last season - and have doubled down on that approach in 2025-26.

• Chelsea: short deliveries ↑ 5.17% (28.6 → 33.7)
• West Ham: short deliveries ↑ 7.21% (7.2 → 14.4)
• Aston Villa / Brighton: short deliveries ↑ 5%

3) The second-phase hunters

Teams are also sending more balls past zone 17 to build dangerous second phases as a deliberate way to build a clearer shot after the first contact. Arsenal often target the second phase by overloading the back-post and winning knock-downs.

• Nottingham Forest: Deep ↑ 6.25% (4.5 → 10.8)
• Aston Villa: Deep ↑ 5% (1.8 → 6.7)
• Fulham / Brentford / Arsenal: Deep ↑ 4%

So set pieces are contributing a bigger share of goals than usual so far, and corners are a big part of that story. In part 2, we’ll dig into first vs second phase and which delivery zones actually create danger.

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