Mikel Arteta’s Unique Preparation Methods for Arsenal

Mikel Arteta didn’t flinch when Arsenal’s Champions League trip to Italy was thrown into chaos by a flight delay. He’d planned for it.

The Premier League champions landed in Naples three hours later than scheduled on Wednesday after air traffic control problems disrupted their journey. For most managers, that’s a headache. For Arteta, it was almost a dress rehearsal.

“I love those challenges, I try to create them in pre-season,” he said on Friday, ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League visit to Sunderland on Saturday night (20:00 BST). “So when they happen, we have already experienced them and we are ready.”

This is Arteta’s world: controlled disruption. He spends the summer months deliberately unsettling his players so that, when the season throws something strange at them, they barely blink.

“Get to the stadium very late, change the routine so the players have to do something else,” he explained. “When it happens, and it can – the flight can be cancelled, or the train is delayed, there is so much traffic – I don’t want the players and staff panicking.”

The message is simple. Adapt. Quickly.

“When that happens, adapt to it. We have two or three hours on the plane – can we use it? Play together, spend some time together, sleep,” Arteta said. “But don’t complain or use it as an excuse because it’s not helpful at all.”

So Arsenal turned a frustrating delay into extra time together. No drama, no noise, no excuses.

Arteta’s methods stretch far beyond the odd late arrival. He will delay meals. Hold back the team coach. Take different routes to stadiums. He has even altered the dressing room environment, making it hotter and more uncomfortable so players learn to cope when conditions are far from ideal.

The idea is to strip away the shock factor on matchday. If players have already felt the irritation and stress in pre-season, it doesn’t hit them as hard when the stakes are real.

This is not a one-off quirk. Arteta has built a reputation for unusual, sometimes theatrical, preparation tools.

The Spaniard once walked into the dressing room holding a light bulb, urging his players to be energetic and shine. On another occasion, he hired professional pickpockets to attend a team dinner and lift phones and wallets from his own squad, only to reveal the stunt later as a lesson in staying alert.

In 2023, he introduced a dog named Win at the training ground, using the pet as a living symbol of togetherness and family inside the club.

From delayed flights to stolen phones and a dog roaming the training pitches, Arteta keeps pushing the boundaries of what preparation looks like. The question now is how far this controlled chaos can carry Arsenal through another relentless season.