Premier League Stats Review: Gameweek 4 Set Piece and Penalty Takers

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Published on October 5, 2020

Is there anything more 2020 than "Ross Barkley has a monopoly of set pieces?" After joining Aston Villa on a season-long loan from Chelsea, who he made zero Premier League starts for this season, Barkley started his first game for his new club and promptly took all of their corners and free kicks, leaving Jack Grealish, Conor Hourihane, who he started for, and John McGinn in his dust. It obviously worked out wonderfully for Villa, who beat Liverpool 7-2, with Barkley scoring a goal. The Aston Villa set-piece situation has been fluid since they re-joined the Premier League last season, but Barkley taking all of their opportunities would surely clear that up.

We saw a few other first-time (at least for this season) set-piece takers, including Adam Lallana and Joel Veltman for Brighton, who also had Lewis Dunk take a free-kick shot, which he's wont to do every so often. We also saw Ben Chilwell take seven of Chelsea's eight corners in their win over Crystal Palace, but it's worth noting that neither Mason Mount nor Reece James played. Chelsea have an abundance of set-piece takers, and we haven't even seen Hakim Ziyech or Christian Pulisic this season.

There is one big development is at Everton, who seem to be done with Lucas Digne on dead balls. Not only did James Rodriguez continue to take corners and free kicks this past weekend against Brighton, but even Gylfi Sigurdsson took one! Sigurdsson was rumored to be moving to MLS this fall but never got his move, and while he's certainly not a regular sterter when Allan, Andre Gomes and Abdoulaye Doucoure are fit, he's apparently a set-piece threat when he does get the minutes. Digne has now gone two games without a corner, and this past weekend was the first time he didn't get a free-kick cross either. He's still a solid creator from his left-back spot, but no free kicks would certainly limit his fantasy production.

Manchester United let Luke Shaw take three free kicks, which seems like a nice present before he's glued to the bench thanks to the addition of Alex Telles from FC Porto. Telles was Porto's primary set-piece taker and would surely be the No. 2 guy for Manchester United, but it's tough to see Bruno Fernandes giving up too many of those chances; the possibility that they split sides is there though.

Note: all columns are sortable.

Legend: MIN = minutes, CRN = corners taken, FK CR = free-kick cross, FK S = free-kick shots

If you'd like to see a match-by-match breakdown for each team, check out our Team Trends pages.

Gameweek 4 Corners and Free Kicks
Player	Team	OPP	H/A	Form	POS	MIN	CRN	CRNCR	FKCR	FKS
Willian	ARS	SHU	H	433	FWR	90	2	2	0	0
Ross Barkley	AVL	LIV	H	4231	AMC	90	2	1	1	0
Solomon March	BHA	EVE	A	3421	ML	90	3	1	0	0
Adam Lallana	BHA	EVE	A	3421	SUB	24	3	1	0	0
Leandro Trossard	BHA	EVE	A	3421	AMC	90	2	0	0	0
Joel Veltman	BHA	EVE	A	3421	SUB	45	1	0	0	0
Pascal Gross	BHA	EVE	A	3421	SUB	8	1	1	0	0
Lewis Dunk	BHA	EVE	A	3421	DC	90	0	0	0	1
Ashley Westwood	BRN	NEW	A	442	MC	90	2	2	1	0
Dwight McNeil	BRN	NEW	A	442	ML	90	2	2	1	0
Ben Chilwell	CHE	CRY	H	4231	DL	90	7	7	1	0
Timo Werner	CHE	CRY	H	4231	AML	90	1	0	0	0
Callum Hudson-Odoi	CHE	CRY	H	4231	AMR	83	0	0	1	0
Andros Townsend	CRY	CHE	A	442	MR	90	4	4	2	0
Eberechi Eze	CRY	CHE	A	442	ML	90	1	0	1	0
Luka Milivojevic	CRY	CHE	A	442	SUB	23	0	0	1	0
James Rodriguez	EVE	BHA	H	433	FWR	78	2	1	1	0
Gylfi Sigurdsson	EVE	BHA	H	433	MC	90	1	1	0	0
Joe Bryan	FUL	WOL	A	4231	AML	67	1	1	1	0
Ademola Lookman	FUL	WOL	A	4231	SUB	23	1	0	0	0
Tom Cairney	FUL	WOL	A	4231	DMC	90	0	0	1	0
Ivan Cavaleiro	FUL	WOL	A	4231	AMR	67	0	0	1	0
Neeskens Kebano	FUL	WOL	A	4231	SUB	9	0	0	0	1
Kalvin Phillips	LEE	MCI	H	4141	DMC	90	7	5	0	0
Youri Tielemans	LEI	WHU	H	343	MC	90	6	6	1	0
Cengiz Under	LEI	WHU	H	343	SUB	35	0	0	1	0
Andrew Robertson	LIV	AVL	A	433	DL	90	4	3	0	0
Trent Alexander-Arnold	LIV	AVL	A	433	DR	90	2	1	0	1
James Milner	LIV	AVL	A	433	SUB	22	1	1	0	0
Kevin De Bruyne	MCI	LEE	A	433	MC	90	5	5	3	1
Riyad Mahrez	MCI	LEE	A	433	FW	77	4	4	0	0
Bernardo Silva	MCI	LEE	A	433	SUB	25	1	1	0	0
Luke Shaw	MUN	TOT	H	4231	DL	90	1	1	2	0
Bruno Fernandes	MUN	TOT	H	4231	AMC	45	1	1	0	0
Jonjo Shelvey	NEW	BRN	H	442	MC	90	2	1	0	0
Ryan Fraser	NEW	BRN	H	442	SUB	17	1	0	0	0
John Lundstram	SHU	ARS	A	352	MC	90	2	2	0	0
John Fleck	SHU	ARS	A	352	SUB	27	2	2	0	0
Ben Osborn	SHU	ARS	A	352	MC	63	0	0	1	0
James Ward-Prowse	SOU	WBA	H	442	MC	90	5	4	2	0
Ryan Bertrand	SOU	WBA	H	442	DL	90	0	0	1	0
Son Heung-Min	TOT	MUN	A	433	FWL	73	2	2	0	0
Sergio Reguilon	TOT	MUN	A	433	DL	90	1	0	1	0
Erik Lamela	TOT	MUN	A	433	FWR	45	1	1	0	1
Matheus Pereira	WBA	SOU	A	4231	AMC	90	1	0	5	0
Jarrod Bowen	WHU	LEI	A	541	MR	88	3	3	0	0
Aaron Cresswell	WHU	LEI	A	541	DC	90	1	1	2	0
Pedro Neto	WOL	FUL	H	352	MC	82	4	2	0	0
Joao Moutinho	WOL	FUL	H	352	SUB	19	1	1	1	0
Daniel Podence	WOL	FUL	H	352	FW	71	1	1	0	0
Ruben Neves	WOL	FUL	H	352	MC	90	0	0	0	1

And speaking of Bruno, he unsurprisingly took Manchester United's penalty in their loss to Tottenham, maintaining his perfect Premier League record from the spot. Additionally, Jorginho bagged TWO penalties, so his miss earlier this season hasn't pushed him off those quite yet. Harry Kane and Callum Wilson also scored for Spurs and Newcastle, respectively, prompting no changes from our expectations.

Gameweek 4 Penalties
Player	Team	OPP	H/A	Form	POS	MIN	PK	PKG	PKM	PKSVD
Jorginho	CHE	CRY	H	4231	DMC	90	2	2	0	0
Bruno Fernandes	MUN	TOT	H	4231	AMC	45	1	1	0	0
Harry Kane	TOT	MUN	A	433	FW	90	1	1	0	0
Callum Wilson	NEW	BRN	H	442	FW	90	1	1	0	0

The author(s) of this article may play in daily fantasy contests including – but not limited to – games that they have provided recommendations or advice on in this article. In the course of playing in these games using their personal accounts, it's possible that they will use players in their lineups or other strategies that differ from the recommendations they have provided above. The recommendations in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of RotoWire. Andrew M. Laird plays in daily fantasy contests using the following accounts: FanDuel: kingmorland, DraftKings: andrewmlaird, Yahoo: Lairdinho.