Have Premier League Corners Been Fixed By the Increased Scrutiny on Grappling?

Premier League referees have been told to clamp down on holding at corners, and it appears in the numbers as though there has been an immediate impact.

Corners had become a problem.

Over the last few years, events in the penalty area at the most common attacking set-piece in football had developed into the kind of a brawl you might be more likely to see in the stands than on the pitch.

And it reached a nadir last season when, at just about every corner, seemingly every player would have their hands all over an opponent. Plenty had no intention of bothering to consider or look at where the ball was.

It all got very ugly as set-pieces became a bigger part of Premier League football than they had arguably ever been before, despite the technical ability of the players reaching a new peak.

Goals flew in in record numbers; 188 were scored from corners in 2025-26, which is the most in any season since the Premier League’s inception.

More goals aren’t necessarily a sign of a problem, of course. It’s generally regarded as a good thing when more goals are scored because that tends to mean we are getting more entertainment.

But the grappling had got so out of control that corners became too difficult to defend. Blocking and holding became so commonplace, so embedded in the tactics of trying to score from a corner, and so natural for the attacking team, that they became too hard to stop.

There were teams that were picking players for their ability in the box. The increase in goals was actually a negative.

And crucially for those in charge of the game, the throng of bodies in the six-yard box and the fact that just about everyone was grappling somebody made it almost impossible to referee properly. Plenty of that undetected holding directly led to a fair few of those goals going in.

So, this summer, Pro Ref, the rebranded name for PGMOL, the body that oversees match officiating in English football, had a rethink. The decision was made that more focus was needed on penalising “holding actions that have clear material impact”. That is, players being prevented from potentially getting to the ball by an opponent who is holding them.

The emphasis was said to be on “non-footballing holding actions that have no place on the football pitch”. Pro Ref attempted to determine precisely what would be deemed a foul, but as with just about all rules in football, the changes were always going to be governed by some degree of subjectivity, meaning there was no chance of preventing the endless debates and scrutiny of every decision.

But the warnings were there from those in charge nonetheless. “We’re trying to get the officials to be as confident as they can be to penalise what they see,” said Howard Webb, the Premier League referees’ chief.

“[That means] fewer warnings, more actions penalised, and if there’s any reduction in offences being penalised, it should be a result of a modification of player behaviour rather than us no longer applying it.”

So, what have the first five rounds of Premier League matches in 2026-27 told us about corner-kicks? Have behaviours changed as Webb hoped, and have there been any changes in the output of corners?

The first thing to note is that it certainly appears as though there is less holding. Corners look less messy this season, and although we are only five games into the season, it’s noteworthy that there haven’t been many major flashpoints.

For example, there hasn’t been a single penalty awarded within 25 seconds of a corner this season – for any kind of misdemeanour – when there were 21 last season. That means we have gone from a penalty being awarded at a corner every 18 games last season to none in 50 games so far in 2026-27.

More corners, however, have led to a free-kick being awarded to the defending team. The proportion of corners that have seen a free-kick given within five seconds of the corner being taken this season (3.8%) is, in fact, the highest in any of the seven seasons for which this data is available (since 2020-21 inclusive).

Free-kick awarded to the defending team within five seconds of the corner; penalty awarded within 25 seconds.

That would imply that the behaviour of defenders has changed for fear of conceding a penalty, while attackers are still trying to get away with it (though it’s not clear to what extent exactly), but are being penalised more for doing so.

The stakes are too high for defenders, but for attackers, potentially conceding a foul when there is a chance of a goal is worth the risk. It may also be the case that defenders are making the most of any contact, knowing that referees are specifically looking out for these fouls.

There has been a penalty awarded for grappling at another kind of set-piece this season. Sunderland were given one in their game against Arsenal following a throw-in, with Ezri Konsa deemed to have fouled Dan Ballard, but the Premier League’s Key Match Incidents panel has since ruled that the penalty was erroneously given.

So, even the one spot-kick awarded for holding in the box was later judged to not have been as bad as it first looked, further suggesting that defenders are being more careful in their own penalty area.

It appears from the early part of this season as though the threat of stricter policing has led to Webb’s hopes being realised, and players are adjusting their behaviour.

Meanwhile, even if attackers’ behaviour has not changed enough, the increase in free-kicks being awarded to the defending team may eventually help resolve that issue.

There has also been a big drop in the number of goals being scored at corners, which may be the result of the increase in fouls being called, but may also show that attackers are getting away with blocking or holding their opponents with a “non-footballing action” less than before.

So far this season, 14 goals have been scored from corner situations, making up just 9.9% of all goals. That’s the second-lowest proportion in any Premier League season, which is particularly noteworthy given it comes after 2025-26 which produced by far the highest proportion of goals from corners (18.0%).

So, is this a positive? Arsenal, who set a new record for the most goals from corners in a season on their way to the 2025-26 Premier League title, with 19, may well argue that corners are a perfectly viable and legitimate mode of attack. Tottenham, too, whose survival was built on 18 goals from corners – the second-highest tally in a Premier League season after Arsenal – may agree with their rivals. Neither have scored a single goal from a corner this season, and Spurs are struggling terribly.

But it is pretty widely accepted that the focus on corners was too great last season; that set-pieces played too prominent a role. There is so much money and skill in Premier League football these days that it almost felt like a shame to watch these stars reduced to physical battles in the box.

So, for those who feel that way, there may be hope now that an almost record-low number of goals are coming from corners. That could lead to a decrease in focus, time and energy teams are putting into set-piece planning. If corners are no longer such a fruitful route to goal, then fewer teams will bother with intricate and ugly blocking plans when they have the opportunity.

Going forwards, then, are we going to see a drop-off in the effectiveness of corners?

Possibly not, because chances are still being created consistently. In fact, the average xG per game from corners has only seen a small dip from last season – from 0.46 xG per game to 0.38.

The reason for the dramatic drop in goals may lie in the league-wide underperformance compared to xG from corners. The 14 corner goals this season have come from 19.2 xG.

If shots had been scored in line with xG at corners this season, 19 goals would have been recorded. That would mean corner goals would account for 13.0% of all goals – the 12th-highest proportion in Premier League history – at a rate of 0.38 per game – the fifth-highest rate ever.

In other words, had the finishing at corners been as effective as it should have been, we’d have seen a relatively high number of goals scored rather than a near-record low.

Corners are still very much an efficient route to goal, and teams will continue to use them as much as possible to boost their chances of success.

We might be seeing better behaviour on the whole so far this season, but that’s not going to stop teams from pushing the boundaries of what they can get away with at corners.

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