Mikel Arteta was ‘forced’ into new training routine for Arsenal which made him lose weight

Mikel Arteta had no choice but to improvise in Arsenal training last week Mikel Arteta had absolutely no intention of taking his foot off the gas during the international break, despite only having a very depleted squad of players left to work with at Arsenal’s Colney training base. The Spanish boss is in the process of whipping his troops back into shape for another assault on the title, but was dismayed to learn how many senior stars he would be without due to international commitments. Nevertheless, after refusing to change his plans regarding squad preparation, Arteta opted to throw himself into the sessions as a desingated player for two weeks, rather than watching on from the sidelines. The high pace, relentless tempo of the camp made him lose a considerable amount of weight, he has now revealed. ‘It was forced! It’s nothing that I wanted to do,’ Arteta told Sky Sports. ‘We had one or two players and some academy players that would join, [but] they could not join. ‘It was a good workout, I lost some weight and I didn’t get injured as well. I did a few (tackles), but I didn’t get anybody injured. ‘I don’t do it almost at all, but sometimes it’s a really good thing. When you are in you feel it and you feel the players and you understand ‘he gets it’, ‘he doesn’t get it’, ‘he gets it too late’. Arteta was highly regarded as a hard-working midfielder during his playing career, despite his refined style while in possession of the ball. The Arsenal boss has also admitted that playing alongside some of his players has actually served to give him a new-found understanding of his squad. He added: “You feel the connection, the energy, who is coaching, who is not. It gives you a lot of information.” Plenty of squad shuffling was required, with the Gunners calling up some youngsters from the academy ranks in order to fill senior spots and also give Arteta the chance to cast eyes over the next generation of stars. The Gunners had 19 players called up for international duty, though one was from the Under-21 squad (Elian Quesada-Thorn) and two were loanees (Runar Alex Runarsson and Kieran Tierney). From Arsenal’s starting line-up prior to the international break, only Ben White was not called up for international duties. Arteta is now hoping his men can lock horns with Manchester City once more and make a concerted effort to become Premier League champions. Last season Arsenal led for the majority of the campaign, before losing steam in the latter stages and allowing Pep Guardiola’s side to impose their dominance, on the way to a historic treble-winning season.