Mikel Arteta's Unorthodox Methods for Managing Chaos at Arsenal

Mikel Arteta had seen this coming long before Arsenal’s plane sat motionless on the tarmac.

When the Premier League champions’ Champions League flight to Italy was hit by air traffic control problems on Wednesday, their schedule was shredded. The team landed for their tie against Napoli three hours later than planned. No smooth build-up, no perfectly timed routines.

Exactly how Arteta likes it.

“I love those challenges, I try to create them in pre-season,” he said on Friday, ahead of Arsenal’s Premier League trip to Sunderland on Saturday night (20:00 BST).

He has spent months hard-wiring chaos into his players’ lives so that, when the real thing arrives, nobody blinks.

Training for turbulence

Arteta’s logic is simple: if disruption becomes normal, it stops being an excuse.

“So when they happen, we have already experienced them and we are ready,” he explained. “Get to the stadium very late, change the routine so the players have to do something else.”

Flights cancelled. Trains delayed. Traffic at a standstill. Arteta reels off the scenarios that can wreck a matchday schedule and refuses to let any of them become a crutch.

“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.

“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.

“But don’t complain or use it as an excuse because it’s not helpful at all.”

So he manufactures the inconvenience. Meals pushed back. Team buses held. Different routes to stadiums just to jolt the routine. Even the dressing room becomes part of the plan, cranked up hotter and more uncomfortable than usual to test tempers and focus.

The idea is to strip matchday of its surprises. If you’ve already lived the worst of the build-up, why fear it when points or progression are on the line?

A manager of unusual methods

This is not a new strand in Arteta’s management. It is simply the latest chapter in a catalogue of unorthodox ideas.

The Spaniard once walked into the dressing room carrying a light bulb, using it as a prop while demanding his players be energetic and shine. A simple image, but one that stuck.

On another occasion, he went even further. Arteta hired professional pickpockets to attend a team dinner, instructing them to lift phones and wallets from his players. The stunt turned into a lesson in awareness and concentration: if you can lose your phone at dinner, you can lose your marker on the pitch.

In 2023, a dog named Win started padding around the training ground. Win was not a gimmick, Arteta insisted, but a symbol – a reminder that the squad operates as a family, with shared responsibility and support.

From props to pets, from stolen phones to sweltering dressing rooms, there is a clear thread: Arteta wants his players permanently switched on, emotionally engaged and mentally agile.

So when a Champions League flight lands three hours late and a carefully plotted schedule goes up in smoke, Arsenal do not reach for excuses.

They reach for the habits their manager has been drilling into them since pre-season.