Mikel Arteta laughs and throws ball at William Saliba’s head as he punishes three Arsenal stars

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Arsenal are in Lisbon to take on Sporting CP in the Champions League.

The Gunners haven’t won any of their last four away games in the competition. They lost their last one against Inter Milan, which makes a win on Tuesday night all the more important.

Arsenal returned to winning ways in the Premier League over the weekend with a convincing 3-0 win against Nottingham Forest at home.

The mood around the squad has been excellent, and that was evident at the Sobha Realty Training Centre on Monday before they flew to Lisbon.

Mikel Arteta hilariously punished three Arsenal stars for losing training drill

Arsenal were hard at work in training on Monday ahead of their Champions League clash against Sporting.

Training sessions under Mikel Arteta are usually very intense, but players have a lot of fun too with some drills before the football starts.

To make things interesting, the Arsenal manager often puts punishments in place for players who don’t manage to win a training drill.

For example, Gabriel Magalhaes had to bring breakfast for the entire squad after losing a training drill back in August 2022.

The simplest punishment is 10 press-ups – we’ve seen many Arsenal players do it in training over the last few years.

On Monday, it was Jorginho, William Saliba and skipper Martin Odegaard’s turn after they lost a drill. Arteta was seen pushing them all down, ordering them to do the press-ups.

The Arsenal boss couldn’t stop laughing and he even jokingly threw a ball at Saliba’s head while he was doing his press-ups.

Watch the incident in the video below (timestamp: 08:37).

READ MORE: Arsenal predicted lineup, latest team and injury news as Ethan Nwaneri decision made vs Sporting CP

Why Arsenal players ‘slapped’ Ethan Nwaneri in training

Ethan Nwaneri is slowly becoming a very popular player among the Arsenal squad even though he’s younger than everyone else.

The senior players in the squad have taken him under their wing, and that is evident every time he is spotted in a first-team training session.

In training on Monday, Nwaneri was slapped on the back by Arsenal players and coaches after he was made to run through them.

That was to celebrate his first-ever Premier League goal, which he scored against Nottingham Forest at the Emirates over the weekend.

Even Arteta joined in and gave the youngster a slap on the back – everyone enjoyed it, including Nwaneri, who can be seen laughing as he ran away from the group.