These days, football is also a game of set-pieces, penalties and extra time: the so-called ‘bonus elements’ that set the champions apart from the rest. In the 2025/26 Premier League season, 27.4 percent of all goals were scored from set-pieces (excluding penalties). This is the second-highest percentage in the league’s 34-year history.
Corner kicks alone accounted for 18 percent of the total number of goals, representing a massive increase on the 12.1 percent recorded in the previous season. Welcome to the new football, and here we have your playbook.
The set-piece revolution: football’s new weapon
Why set pieces now rule the game. Space is shrinking. Defences are more organized. Physicality is through the roof. As Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta put it: “You have to find ways to score in different ways”. Set pieces have become that way.
The 2025/26 season of the Premier League produced the second-highest proportion of goals from set-pieces (30.0%) in league history, where a record 19% of all goals came from corners.
The tactics behind the trend:
- In-swinging corners are king, as they attack the goalkeeper’s zone
- Blocking and "dark arts" create free runs at the ball
- Long throws are back, since there have been 4.0 long throws into the penalty area per game, more than double any previous season
- Zonal vs. man-marking battles play out on every corner
The bottom line: Set pieces are the great equalizer. They level the financial playing field, as it’s much easier for a smaller club to be better at set pieces than to outplay a giant in open play.
Penalties: the ultimate mind game
The 12-yard lottery. Penalties are football’s most intense individual duel. The success rate is roughly 85% during regular time, but that plummets to 76% in shootouts.
The psychology matters more than technique, as players who rush their shot within 200 milliseconds of the whistle are successful in only 57 percent of cases. The athletes who had paused for at least a second to compose themselves converted over 80 percent of their penalties.
The secret to success:
- Pause for 1.5 seconds to reset mentally
- Target the upper corners, as lower zones have success rates around 72%, while upper zones drop to 58%
- Harry Kane is the master because he practices the psychological battle as much as the technique
How football bonus features translate to online slots
These nail-biting football moments have become the inspiration for some of the industry’s most popular online slots. Game developers have realized that the drama of a last-minute corner or something similar translates perfectly into the mechanics of bonus rounds. With the majority of people playing at the most popular slots, there’s more at stake than ever before.
- Set-piece bonuses: Many football-themed slots offer free spins bonuses triggered by scatter symbols – just like ‘corners’ that can decide the outcome of a match.
- Extra time = free spins with multipliers: Just as extra time extends a match, many slots offer ‘extra spin’ features or re-spin mechanics that keep the action going when you least expect it.
- The numbers back it up: Participants are 45 percent more likely to be enthusiastic about a branded football game than otherwise.
