After finishing second to Manchester City in the Premier League last season, Arsenal strive to improve to ensure they can finish top of the league this season. The 2022-2023 season saw Arsenal spend the longest time in the Premier League – 248 days – without winning the title, before seeing it slip away by just two points in the 2023-2024 season.
These close calls have led to manager Mikel Arteta employing some unorthodox methods during pre-season. During a team dinner, the Arsenal manager hired professional pickpockets to go around the tables and take items from the first team members. according to The Athletic. After the food was ready, Arteta asked the team to empty their pockets, after which many players lost their valuables. It was a moment to show that the team must be prepared and alert at all times.
While there are many questions, such as where Arteta hired the pickpockets and what dinner preparedness has to do with being prepared on a football field, this is just the latest in the mental training methods Arteta is using as he begins his fifth season. at the helm of Arsenal.
Arteta brought out his Pictionary skills drawing a heart and a brain holding hands during “All or Nothing: Arsenal”, which confused his players. This was done after Arsenal lost three of the first five games of the Premier League season to explain that both had to work in harmony on the pitch for the Gunners to achieve success.
“Guys, we have to play with our big hearts,” he said as he signed. “At the same time, we have to play with a big brain. And they have to work together. This is your passion, how your manager wants you to put it into the game. How much you want to put yourself into the game.”
Arteta has that too motivated his players with a light bulb during a team speech to show that they must play connected. But the latest edition of pickpocketing is new even by Arteta’s standards.
When a team has come so close to winning some of the top honors with a squad that has largely remained the same, this should be a call for Arteta to do what he can to get an even higher gear out of his team . Only time will tell if players can use this as motivation to keep the opposition attackers in their own pockets or if this is the latest in a series of Arsenal coming up short.
