Mikel Arteta has been ‘pinching’ his Arsenal players in training to teach them the dark arts — an area that he believes is not in the club’s DNA.
The Gunners’ defeats to Newcastle and Porto this season — in the Premier League and Champions League respectively — were characterised by the aggression displayed by their opposition.
The match on Tyneside in November spilled over afterwards, Arteta going on to call the VAR’s decision to allow Anthony Gordon’s goal ‘embarrassing’ and ‘a disgrace’.
And Wednesday’s trip to Portugal saw the Dragons physical impose themselves on the north London club.
Ahead of Arsenal’s match against Newcastle on Saturday, he said: ‘There are ways to do it (dark arts). It is the way you talk to them, showing them clips, training — putting them through scenarios, pinching (provoking) them a few times as well, learning from other players who do it really well and from teams who are masters at it. There are ways to do it.
Mikel Arteta has been ‘pinching’ his players in training in order to teach them the dark arts
‘It’s very important. That’s a way of competing for a team, you know. And you can tell that the best players in the world have the ability to take advantage, always.’
The Gunners have long been seen as a club that is too nice. It is a perception Arteta wants to change.
He said: ‘Sometimes it comes from the culture of the club. There are clubs that they have that in their DNA. It is not something that you would directly link with Arsenal, that’s for sure, but it is something that has to be developed.
‘We have many other things and a lot of other clubs don’t have what we do. You want to have the best of the best — that’s the aim.’
Before this week, the previous time Arteta’s side lost in the Champions League — a 2-1 defeat to Lens — they hit back with a 1-0 victory over Manchester City.
And the Spaniard is looking for the same reaction.
‘That’s the reaction that we need,’ he said.
‘We want to create that atmosphere in the stadium from the beginning. I ask everybody to go there tomorrow night with full energy because the team will be there. We are in a really good moment in the Premier League and we want to be there.’
Arsenal struggled to cope with the aggression shown by Porto in the Champions League
The Gunners were angered by refereeing decisions in their defeat to Newcastle in November
Arteta confirmed Thomas Partey, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko are close to returning to the squad. Partey returned to training earlier this week having not played for the Gunners since October because of a hamstring injury, while Jesus has missed the last four games because of a knee issue.
Zinchenko is closing in on a comeback from a calf problem, though Takehiro Tomiyasu still needs longer in his recovery.
