- The Arsenal manager has already used strange methods to motivate his stars
- Mikel Arteta secretly hired a freestyler to go undercover with his Arsenal squad
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Arsenal star Oleksandr Zinchenko has revealed that Mikel Arteta secretly hired a football freestyler to work undercover as a waiter and compete with his players before a match, in another bizarre attempt at motivation.
The Gunners boss is not afraid to practice outside-the-box thinking when it comes to team-bonding exercises and again showed his unconventional approach by having the fake waiter play a prank on his team.
Arteta is on a mission to guide Arsenal to the Premier League title (after failing twice in consecutive years) and he is evidently doing everything, even the strange and crazy, to achieve that goal.
Arsenal’s preparations were mocked earlier this year when the Spaniard secretly hired a team of professional pickpockets to loot his players’ wallets and valuables during a team meal.
On that previous occasion, at the end of the meal, Arteta asked the players to empty their pockets. Several then realized that they were missing valuable items. The exercise was supposedly carried out to educate first-team stars on the importance of being alert at all times.
Mikel Arteta secretly hired a football freestyler to pose as a waiter during an Arsenal team meal.
The Gunners boss is not afraid to think outside the box when it comes to motivating his players.
Arteta is tasked with guiding Arsenal to the Premier League title after failing twice in successive years.
Now, in a renewed attempt at motivation, Zinchenko has revealed how he was challenged to take on one of Arteta’s coaching staff in a freestyle competition, only to find a professional trickster posing in costume.
“We stayed at the same hotel before a game and knew all the waiters. But that day there was a new boy. So before going to the stadium (Arteta) said: ‘Okay guys, let me wake you up, because we need energy,’ Zinchenko told the Guardian.
‘Last time, Alex, we played personal against players and you beat (set pieces coach) Nicolás (Jover). Let’s do it the same, but with free style.
“Everyone was like, ‘What? I’m sure Alex will beat him, blah, blah, blah. Nico started doing something with the ball and suddenly it looks like he got injured. It was so obvious but strange.
Then they called the new waiter. We didn’t know he was a professional freestyler.
‘He destroyed me with his tricks and we were all in deep shock. But then we all laughed and went to the game with good energy.”
The Ukrainian did not reveal which specific match the unusual pre-match exercise was carried out in, but Arteta’s approach has worked well so far this season with the Gunners third and just four points behind Liverpool.
Oleksandr Zinchenko revealed how he was “destroyed” by a soccer freestyler in a competition
Other unconventional approaches deployed by the 42-year-old have also been well documented: Arteta once blasted Liverpool’s iconic anthem ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ during a training session ahead of a trip to Anfield.
The Arsenal players were also subjected to a team talk in which Arteta produced a light bulb and waved it around the dressing room to symbolize how he wanted his team to play with “energy” and “electricity”.
The Gunners boss also previously invented a new word, “collaboration”, which is a peculiar combination of the words collaboration and competition.
Arsenal suffered their first Premier League defeat of the season with a shock defeat at Bournemouth at the weekend and could fall further out of the title race if they lose to league leaders Liverpool on Sunday.
