Mikel Arteta reveals why Arsenal train to music before Champions League return | OneFootball

Gunners trained against the backdrop of a Brazilian Samba soundtrack before Dinamo Zagreb match

Mikel Arteta has revealed that Arsenal play music during training sessions to “build the energy” among the players.

The song was famously used during the iconic Nike advert in 1998, which saw Brazil legends playing football through an airport.

And asked about having music playing during training sessions, Arteta said: “That is something that we’ve done for many years now and it is part of training.

“We use music as another element of our training sessions to build the energy and change certain purposes that we want in the training session, and I think the players enjoy it.

“Depending on the day, sometimes certain players pick certain songs - the first song, the first two songs, the last song - it’s the same as in the dressing room really.”

Arteta will be hoping to lift the mood ahead of Wednesday night’s Champions League clash against Dinamo Zagreb.

The Gunners blew a two-goal lead against Aston Villa on Saturday evening to lose ground on Liverpool in the Premier League title race.

Arsenal are in a strong position in the Champions League, though, and would all but secure a spot in the last 16 with a win over Zagreb.

“So far we’ve done really well, we’re in a really strong position and now it’s time to capitalise at home on the work we’ve done for many months,” said Arteta. “We need a strong performance against a really strong side and we will try to do that.”

Zagreb will have a new manager in the dugout after they hired Italy legend Fabio Cannavaro last month - and this will be his first competitive game in charge.

“That’s the context of the game a little bit, a new coach and the fact that they haven’t played a competitive match for a month,” said Arteta.

“We know the friendly games that they’ve played and we watched them just to try to gather ideas, more principles and systems than formations because Fabio’s played different formations when he was in China to Italy and now as well.

“To actually understand what they’re going to do and know the idea behind it, we’ll adapt to that tomorrow.”