Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has revealed that he always sends a member of his backroom team to spy on the opposition side during their warmup ahead of kick-off.
The Spanish coach shared this tactical insight with Arsenal Women’s head coach Jonas Eidevall in a video promoting the pair signing new deals with the club.
During the promo, posted on Arsenal’s Twitter page, Arteta and Eidevall were exchanging their approaches to coaching, when the topic of what they really do during the warmups came up.
Arteta revealed that while he does not go onto the pitch before kick-off, he sends someone to spy on the opposing team’s training to see if they can learn anything about how they might play.
He said: ‘We have a nominated person who is looking at the opposition warm up.
‘So, if they are doing something like shape, or clearances, or they do patterns in the final third and who’s playing on the right. So at least we have an idea of what to do.
‘But now in the Premier League it’s a nightmare. You think they are going to play in a certain way, you prepare, then you get the team sheet, and it’s different!
‘So, at the end we just have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C a lot of times. If they do that, we do that, or do that.
‘And now, I just don’t tell them what to do until we get the team sheet. So, I have two gameplans, and ten minutes before we go out [I say for example], “OK, they play with 5-3-2. Now guys, this is what we do”.’
This approach has clearly paid off, with the Gunners fourth in the table with just four matches to go, although they still have to fend off rivals Tottenham if they are to qualify for the Champions League for the first time since 2016.
