An extension lead is rigged up at Arsenal’s training ground. The speakers are brought to the side of the pitch. Mikel Arteta has selected the soundtrack to their preparations for a trip to Anfield. And so You’ll Never Walk Alone rings out around London Colney. As Arsenal duly lose 4-0, perhaps he would have been better off simply picking Kieran Tierney instead of the accident-prone Nuno Tavares.
He fares better by borrowing Stuart MacFarlane, the club photographer and lifelong fan, to deliver a team talk before the north London derby. Arsenal duly demolish Tottenham. Perhaps, though, the inspiration came not from the camera, but a drawing as Arteta, Pictionary-style, sketches someone waving an Arsenal scarf, a massive heart and brain either side of them. It could have made the difference. Although maybe Nuno Espirito Santo just got his tactics so horribly wrong by neglecting to have a proper midfield that the gimmicks were completely irrelevant except in what they say about Arsenal’s obsessive manager.
