The pressure on Mikel Arteta is going to be as high as it has ever been as Arsenal prepare for the new Premier League season.
Arsenal start the campaign at home to Wolves, before several tough away trips against Aston Villa, Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester City.
Pre-season has gone swimmingly for the London club, including Arsenal beating Manchester United.
But after Arsenal missed out on the Premier League title to Manchester City last season, you feel Arteta can’t have many more excuses now, but to deliver and win that all-important English crown.
One thing is for sure, the Spaniard has tried it all to get over the line and find those small margins to get one over on his old mate, Pep Guardiola.
But his latest actions seemed to have riled up Liverpool legend Steve Nicol, who didn’t mince his words and labelled it ’stupid’.
To get the edge over your rivals, the norm is to improve the players you have or spend money in the transfer market.
Arteta has done that in bucket loads, including Arsenal signing Riccardo Calafiori to further boost their defence.
But as Arsenal fans would have seen with the All or Nothing documentary, their manager likes to try a few innovative and out-of-the-box things to gain an edge.
From light bulbs to playing the noise of the Anfield crowd at the training ground, one has been as whacky as the other.
And now Arteta’s latest secret plot shows the lengths he will go to win because he hired professionals to pickpocket his players to warn them that they should be alert at all times.
Nicol wasn’t having any of it and thinks the ‘Arsenal players aren’t listening’ to these off-field tactics Arteta is trying, as he told ESPN.
Mikel Arteta’s latest tactics at Arsenal
“You don’t add that nonsense at the end of being alive all the time, unless you are serious,” said Nicol.
“Light bulbs and all that nonsense. Are you being serious? I tell you what has worked, they have spent a lot of money on players, that’s what has worked. How about he has spent a lot of money on good players? (That’s what has made Arsenal improve, not Arteta’s off-field tactics).
“Do you think when Arteta is walking around the dressing room and he has one of the coaches six yards behind him? Do you think the players are listening to what he is saying? They aren’t. They are sitting there going ‘what’s going on here?’ Stupid!”
Arsenal’s summer transfer window
As mentioned above, Calafiori is through the door and ready to make his Premier League debut against Wolves.
Emile Smith Rowe has left Arsenal and joined Fulham, with the strong possibility that a midfielder will join before the window slams shut at the end of the month.
READ MORE: 50 MOST LIKELY PREMIER LEAGUE, EFL AND EUROPEAN SUMMER 2024 FOOTBALL TRANSFERS
Sources have told HITC when Arsenal want the Mikel Merino deal done, with the Euro 2024 winner on a high and ready to take the London club’s quality to an even higher level.
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