Pulis: Ten years ago Wenger criticized my corner kick tactics, now Arteta regards set kicks as praise

In the BBC column, former Stoke City coach Tony Pulis talked about the set-piece tactics in the Premier League.

Pulis said: Arteta embraces set-piece tactics and is not afraid of criticism. No matter which club you are at or what strategy you adopt, there will always be noise and criticism from the outside. But as long as you can win games, your supporters will be very happy. We saw Arsenal fans singing "Another set-piece, ole ole ole" when Eze scored the winner from Rice's free-kick against Crystal Palace on Sunday.

Ten years ago, I was criticized by Gunners fans and Arsene Wenger for my corner-kick and long-pass tactics, and Wenger even called Stoke City a rugby team. That's one of the reasons why I have so much respect for Arteta, because he sees it all and thinks this tactic can help the team. I saw someone make Arteta look like me, wearing a baseball cap, and I thought it was funny, he made me look handsome!

Wenger may be shaking his head at what Arsenal are doing now, but I know Arteta takes the Stoke comparison as a compliment, as do other Premier League managers. Wenger never seemed to realize the value of set pieces and struggled to deal with a team as direct as ours, so he complained about managers like me and Allardyce as much as possible.

I can understand why he did it, it's common sense, but few coaches would complain about it these days, even those who want to play football differently. I saw an interview with Guardiola recently where they tried to get him to express his displeasure with set pieces and long balls returning, but instead he said that if the right players were available, he would probably use the same tactics.

Of course, it's Arsenal and not Stoke City who are doing it now, which makes a difference. When Arteta employs this tactic at one of the biggest and most famous clubs in the world, everyone takes notice.

Thomas Frank used the same tactics at both Brentford and Tottenham, and is now successful at Tottenham. Immediately after their win over Everton, he walked up to the fans and pointed at Van der Ven as he scored two brilliant goals from set pieces.

When this happens constantly, people begin to realize and acknowledge this. Just like when Stoke City were at the Britannia Stadium, every time they got a throw-in, the fans would cheer until Rory Delap took the throw-in, because it has become a special scene.

The same is true for Arsenal now. When they take a corner kick, the fans stand up and cheer before the ball is even sent out. The anticipation and pressure put on opponents is staggering. Of course, there are still critics, but Arteta deserves all the praise he gets.

One difference now is that when I was at Stoke City, Crystal Palace or West Brom, I was responsible for all the set-pieces myself, whereas Arteta hired Nicolas Joffe specifically as a set-piece coach and they have had great success with it.

Maybe Big Sam (Allardyce) and I are indeed trendsetters, but I have to stress that when we get criticized, I don't care because I know the value of these set pieces to our club.

Some people scoffed at it but no one within the club thought that way and we laughed about it because we knew it was paying off for us and we wouldn't tell anyone at the time.

Sean Dyche has the same attitude. He spoke about the change in style of football when he appeared on The Manager Podcast with Mick McCarthy last week, and mentioned it again when he accepted the Nottingham Forest managership a few days later, also mentioning the long-passing tactics I and Stoke City had. For Dyche, as for me, the most important thing is winning games.