The factor that kept Sunderland up and sent Newcastle down

In the Euros we have already seen just how big a factor set-pieces are in the modern game.

In club football it is little different and Newcastle have suffered for years with their failure at set-pieces, especially under Alan Pardew.

The sale of Yohan Cabaye in January 2014 exasperating the problem, with nobody left to take corners/free-kicks.

Newcastle did actually manage half a dozen goals from corners this past season but when it came to set-pieces overall, United were still left trailing.

A set of statistics have just been published by the Express, showing how many goals every Premier League side scored from set-pieces, with the total including from corners, free-kicks and penalties.

It sums up the importance of them to all teams, when you see that Spurs and Leicester who both finished in the top three, were in the top two places for set-pieces.

At the other end, only two clubs scored fewer goals from them than Newcastle, with all three relegated teams in the bottom three for set-pieces.

Newcastle scored six from corners, three from penalties and two from free-kicks. Andros Townsend’ stunner v Palace givig us hope of better next season.

In contrast, Sunderland scored 18 goals and were sixth in these stats, those seven extra goals from set-pieces arguably the difference in keeping them up and sending Newcastle down.

Ironically after being so clueless at Newcastle under Alan Pardew from corners in particular, Palace scored 11 from corners and finished fourth top in these stats.

Goals scored by Premier League clubs from set-pieces in 2015/16:

22 Spurs

21 Leicester

20 West Ham

19 Crystal Palace

19 Man City

18 Sunderland

17 Liverpool

16 Southampton

15 Bournemouth

15 Chelsea

14 Arsenal

14 Watford

13 West Brom

13 Swansea

12 Everton

11 Stoke

11 Norwich

11 Newcastle

10 Man Utd

9 Aston Villa