Champions League now Arsenal's best trophy bet as Mikel Arteta eyes end to injury headache
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As the Arsenal players began their warm-up on Tuesday afternoon, music blared across the training pitch. The mood at Arsenal may have been sombre after they blew a two-goal lead against Aston Villa on Saturday, but there was a samba feel to this session.
Hits such as ‘Mas Que Nada’ by Sergio Mendes, which was famously used in a Nike advert that had Brazilian legends dribbling through an airport, were blasted out at full volume by speakers on the side of the pitch. The cynic in you wondered if this was all a deflection tactic ahead of Arsenal’s Champions League clash with Dinamo Zagreb on Wednesday.
Mikel Arteta’s press conferences this month have been dominated by questions about when Arsenal will sign a new striker and, for once, that was not the talking point. The Spaniard, however, revealed he regularly uses music as part of training and Tuesday was not a one-off.
“I think music has the capacity to change your mood, to change your energy to a certain place,” said Arteta. “You play a song and immediately you feel different. “And we have certain songs that trigger something in our team, because they have some history as well with us, and I will use it when we believe it’s the right way to do it.”.
It was the Champions League anthem that Arsenal were playing in training last season, such was the players’ excitement about being back in the competition for the first time in six years. Only 11 of Arsenal’s squad last year had played in the Champions League before and enthusiasm gripped the club’s training ground, with players playing the competition’s anthem during gym sessions.
