Bacary Sagna has revealed that he was shocked by something after spending time with the Arsenal squad recently.
The Gunners sit top of the Premier League table after eight matches, having won six and conceded just three goals in the process.
Mikel Arteta’s team are riding high, and many now believe Arsenal are the favourites to lift the title come May.
Sagna spent time with the Spaniard’s squad over the summer, and the Frenchman subsequently got a good look behind the curtain at what goes on at the Sohba Realty training ground.
Bacary Sagna says he was shocked by how ‘ripped’ Arsenal’s players were
Arsenal have been praised for their brute physicality this season and in previous years.
Arteta has assembled a physically powerful squad that consists of several athletically impressive players, including the likes of Declan Rice, Gabriel Magalhaes and William Saliba.
The Gunners clearly work tirelessly on their players’ conditions, with almost everyone in Arteta’s squad boasting huge, powerful upper bodies.
Speaking to Reece Mennie, Sagna revealed that he was shocked by how ‘ripped’ the players in the Gunners’ dressing room currently are.
“I got to spend time with Arsenal recently, and the physicality of them is impressive,” the former right-back said.
“They’re all ripped for me, and to see them ripped, I was like, ‘oh, what’s happening?’ But then I saw the organisation, the fitness coaches around them.”
Arsenal needed to become a physically dominant team
Under Arsene Wenger, Arsenal were often berated for being too weak physically, and allowing less technically gifted sides to dominate them with pure brute force.
Conversely, Arteta demands that his squad be physical, with the Spaniard refusing to sign players who don’t have the athletic capacity to excel in the Premier League.
The manager has enforced a policy of only signing aggressive players, and this has helped transform his side into a team that can overpower almost any side on the planet.
For the sake of the club’s perception, this transformation needed to happen. For too long, Arsenal were bullied, and this created a frustrating narrative for Gunners supporters to have to deal with.
Now they can no longer be labelled a soft touch, and that will delight fans who had to endure the latter days of the Wenger era and Unai Emery’s tenure.
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