Martin Keown has recalled how he would get 'cheesed off' during the tail end of his career at Leicester City.

The former centre-back joined the Foxes after spending more than a decade at Arsenal in 2004.

In the end he spent just a few months with the club, making 19 appearances before moving on to Reading the following January.

It was a forgettable time for the club, the 2004/05 season saw them part ways with Micky Adams in October before appointing Craig Levein after a few weeks.

In between though, Keown has recalled how then director of football Dave Bassett came in as caretaker and drilled them to the point of boredom.

One aspect was particularly key to his sessions, one that has had a renaissance this season.

"We've not gone back to the eighties, here where it was just long ball, long ball, long ball. This is like cultured football, you could say, to the edge of the box and then they're now using the set pieces," Keown told talkSPORT.

"To give you an idea from last year to this, 20% of goals were scored from set pieces last year, we're now at 25%.

"So it's incremental how it's going up, it's definitely going up, and everybody is looking at it saying 'OK, well there's joy coming for Arsenal'. Look at Brentford, Spurs straight away, totally different.

"Van de Ven hadn't scored a goal for years, suddenly now he's scoring them every week because he's got a manager who's giving him the right information.

"So it is very clear evidence, with good positioning, good work on the training ground.

"I've not been around a modern club, how are they doing this on the training pitch? We would get pretty cheesed off standing there for hours, going through set pieces.

"When I was at the end of my career at Leicester, Dave Bassett came in with Howard Wilkinson, and I renamed them Set Piece City, Leicester Set Piece City.

"One was doing free kicks and one was doing corners, they split it, they were so desperate. But they weren't far away from what you need to do.

"You couldn't get the players to apply themselves.

"I think now they sit in a room, I think they go through it in detail, there's better ways to learn things, and they go out and just implement it, do it much quicker, and they're taking it on board brilliantly.

"It's how the game has evolved. What we have now, we have a low block, we have very difficult situations to get past with defenders really well organized, good analysis.

"So what teams are now trying to do when they can't find a way through, is make these set pieces count.

"The difference is it used to be the Stokes and the Boltons and now it's not, it's the Man Citys, it's the Arsenals, it's the top teams because it's another string to their bow, they're finding other ways to be successful.

"It's how the game has evolved, you've got to be first in class for everything. Conversely, we look at West Ham, they're terrible from set pieces.

"They've conceded 20 goals, 20 goals, and we are just into the new season. It's a disgrace.

"If they don't improve, they're going down. You might say more important for them is not a manager, but a set piece piece coach. They're that bad at the moment."

So far this season City have scored five goals from set-pieces - and are the only team in the Championship not to have conceded any. Coventry have scored the most with 11.