Mikel Arteta has turned DJ to get his Arsenal players back on track.
Arteta set up giant speakers and pumped out music during training ahead of their Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb. Gunners boss Arteta even claimed that they have used music in the dressing room, on away days and as part of their preparations during his reign.
But the pumping music was a first during an open practice, when the players gathered for the baseball anthem Take Me Out To The Ball Game, but then turned it up for the warm-up with a few Brazilian songs, including Mas Que Nada.
Arteta said: “Music is another element of our training sessions to be the energy to change certain goals that we want to achieve during training and I think the players enjoyed it. Music is a large part of our culture.
“We have music in many different places, and I think music has the ability to change your mood, to change your energy to a certain place. And I think it happens to all of us. You play a song and you immediately feel different, and we have certain songs that trigger something in our team because they also have a piece of history with us, and I will use it if we think it is the right way to do it doing.
“I have a lot of favorite music depending on the day, that's what I'm saying. It's not about my energy, and sometimes I play a song a lot, and my kids say, 'Daddy, can we please stop!'”
Arteta was famously mocked after the Amazon All Or Nothing documentary for playing 'You'll Never Walk Alone' to get Arsenal ready for a match at Liverpool – only to have his players blown away at Anfield. But Arteta's methods seem to be working better these days, even if they were a little flat after being held by Aston Villa after leading 2-0 on Saturday.
They can take a huge step towards automatic qualification against Dinamo Zagreb and there was a surprise in the first-team training group when highly rated teenager Max Dowman, 15, took part. Arsenal say he is not eligible to play but his presence shows his progress while Ethan Nwaneri and Riccardo Calafiori were both there.
They are still looking for a striker and Josh Kroenke – son of owner Stan – is expected in London this week as they are ready to make a move if they can bring forward one of their key summer targets to January.
Arsenal have eyed RB Leipzig's Benjamin Sesko and he is ready for the summer, with the German club unlikely to sell this month. But Arteta says he has received plenty of support from the hierarchy, but also suggested that while he wanted a striker last summer, he still felt other areas needed reinforcement.
Arteta added: “First of all it supports the club and itself, you know, because we all want the best. The decision we make is not to support anyone. It's just something that makes sense. It's going to improve the team, it gives us the opportunity to perform at a level and win the things we want to do. If that's the case and we have the resources to do it, we'll try.
“The things that other teams have done with the leaders, we've put them in other areas that we think were really needed, and we also need to develop players at a very high level. Every case is different and I am very happy with what we have.”
Comments