As Arsenal look to defend their Premier League title and try and win the Champions League for the first time in club history after their near-miss last season, they are encountering some unique challenges — most of them put in front of them by club manager Mikel Arteta. The Spaniard recently revealed that he has been turning up the heat — literally — in the club dressing room, changing meal times, and reducing massage tables in the stadium for players. Why? To ensure that players get used to inconveniences and do not start panicking when there’s an element of surprise throwing a spanner in their well-made plans.

“I have been delaying meals, delaying transport, taking a different route. We’ve done many things in pre-season,” Arteta revealed at a press conference. “Made the dressing room hotter, more difficult, more challenging, less [massage] beds. Those kinds of things because we’re going to have to adapt to different contexts. And we will try to anticipate this and adapt to difficult conditions. When there’s no element of surprise or stress on a matchday, I think it’s important.”

Recently, Arsenal reached Naples for their Champions League group stage clash against Italian giants Napoli three hours behind schedule, due to the Air Traffic Control crisis back home in the UK. But the players had already been trained in the pre-season to handle such inconveniences by Arteta’s out-of-the book methods.

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“I love these challenges. I tried to create them in pre-season!” said Arteta at a press conference. “So when they happen, we know how to experience them and we already know. Get to the stadium very late, change the routine so the players have to do something else. When it happens, and it can: the flight can be cancelled, or the train is delayed, there is so much traffic, I don’t want the players and staff panicking. When that happens, adapt to it. We have two or three hours on the plane — can we use it? Play together, spend some time together, sleep. But don’t complain or use it as an excuse because it’s not helpful at all.”

Arteta’s unconventional methods of preparing his players have made headlines after they were revealed in the Amazon Prime documentary All Or Nothing. It was revealed that he had gone to the extent of hiring a pickpocket, who dressed as a waiter and stole items from Arsenal players during an evening meal.