Hands On

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Arteta will be hands on which is what Arsenal need right now.
"Physically not there", these are the words from David Luiz as they beat United even though there were a no real scares towards the end of the match. He was referring to the team collapsing in the last 10 minutes against Chelsea the other day. The English Premiership doesn't take a break over the Christmas period like other leagues around the world do and do quite the opposite by playing extra as they are in the entertainment business.

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Chelsea scored in the 83rd and 87th minute after Arsenal had been leading.

Everyone is on holiday and all eyes are on the Premier League over the Christmas period making it the most watched league. Players train on Christmas day as this is what is required and this brings me back to Luiz's comments that he blurted out at the after match press conference following their victory over Manchester United. What does he mean as they are professional athletes?

I know it is tough having to train everyday of the week ,but that is what you are paid to do and so have no sympathy if they are playing 3 games a week for the Christmas period. Many people would stick their hands up to receive 100 000 Pounds per week no matter what was asked of you.

When I was playing rugby we trained every day except for match days and that was only semi professional. Most of us worked during the day time and had to attend practices if we wanted to be selected. I can recall practicing over the Easter Holidays which wasn't a holiday for me as I was expected to work for my company as well. I managed both back then and it was no joke.

The first month is difficult as your body takes time to get used to the physical exertions placed on it and you finally get into a routine. My question is why aren't the Arsenal players fit enough to stand up to playing 90 minutes of football and cave in on 80 minutes. Something has to be wrong somewhere in the way they train as they don't have the stamina to cope.

A fit team is a confident team who think clearly and fight as one unit. Mistakes are normally made if players are struggling and can't maintain the pace of the game. Mikkel Arteta has to and I am sure he will increase the fitness levels of every player in the squad. Eddie Jones remarked when he visited Pep Guardiola's training whilst at Barcelona he noticed all the big names training hard at full pace as though it was a match. If you do anything it has to be done properly and not half heartedly otherwise what are you proving?

Arteta was Pep's number 2 at Manchester City so I am sure the Arsenal players are going to be grilled on the training pitch until there are major improvements and this will become obvious over the next month or so. fitness levels should not be part of the managers problem in my thinking as that should be done by the individual and the conditioning coaches. In rugby season we used to train at the club and also do training on our own which would normally involve a 10 km jog every day followed by doing laps in the swimming pool. I would love to be a full time athlete being paid the big money as fitness would not be lacking as I actually enjoy that side of it and see it as part of the job.