Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during a press conference at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. ( Zed Jameson/PA Wire)
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta during a press conference at the Jose Alvalade Stadium in Lisbon, Portugal. ( Zed Jameson/PA Wire)
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Arsenal have deployed another unusual warm-up method as they look to lift the mood following back-to-back cup defeats, with the club using marker pens in an attempt to sharpen the minds and bodies of their players.
Arsenal began Monday’s training session with an exercise in which four players were connected by pens as they dribbled a ball downfield. Each player used their index finger to hold one side of the pen, while their team-mate did the same with the other side.
Unconventional drills have been a constant theme of Mikel Arteta’s time as Arsenal manager. He once played Liverpool’s You’ll Never Walk Alone anthem on the training pitches ahead of a trip to Anfield, while Arsenal’s coaches also regularly blare out dance music through speakers in warm-ups.
Arteta’s willingness to experiment extends to team dinners and meetings. He once secretly employed pickpockets to steal from his players, in a lesson about remaining alert at all times, and also disguised a professional freestyler as a waiter at the team hotel.
For all this light-heartedness, which insiders say helps to improve the mood over the course of a long and draining season, there has also been a more serious issue with Arsenal’s warm-ups this season.
Arteta said earlier this year that the club were assessing their pre-match warm-up routines after four players suffered injuries in the final moments before competitive games.
Riccardo Calafiori (twice), Bukayo Saka and William Saliba have all picked up knocks or muscle injuries in warm-ups this season. Arteta even suggested that Arsenal could ultimately abandon warm-ups altogether.
“I was a player as well and we like certain routines and that’s the way you tell your body ‘it is coming, it is coming, it is coming’,” he said in February.
“To change that sometimes is tricky. It is a really good area to have a look. What would happen if we don’t do the warm-up? Because then, at half-time, we go and sit almost for 15 minutes and then go full gas in the second half. Maybe it is something to think about.”
After back-to-back defeats, by Manchester City in the Carabao Cup and Southampton in the FA Cup, Arsenal are hoping to rebuild their momentum when they face Sporting CP in their Champions League quarter-final first leg in Lisbon tonight.