Unai Emery is running a tight ship at Arsenal. Former boss Arsene Wenger was a nutritional revolutionary when he arrived in England in 1996.
But the Frenchman had significantly softened his stance on food intake by the time he left the club at the end of last season.
Emery has made sweeping changes in an attempt to improve the performance of the squad he inherited from Wenger. According to sources the Spaniard’s primary change is to ban fruit juice and replace it with water. The former Paris St-Germain boss has also placed restrictions on the use of mobile phones during mealtimes. The aim is to improve relationships between players by making them interact with each other more.
Another change to mealtimes sees the under-23s and under-18s eat alongside the senior side.
This presumably is done to foster strong relations between the young talent and older players.
Arsene Wenger was perhaps a little too soft on his players
Emery has also opted to take a far more hands-on approach in training sessions than Wenger did during his tenure at Arsenal.
The Frenchman often delegated training work to assistant manager Steve Bould while he focused more on the bigger picture.
Emery has spoken about how he hopes to evolve Arsenal’s philosophy from the foundations left by Wenger.
“Arsenal play possession football and throughout my career,” he said. “I’ve always been a coach who wants possession.
Steve Bould has overlapped the Wenger and Emery eras
“There is something I would like to add to my philosophy, that I like to win the ball back as quickly as possible.
“So it’s about two things: possession and pressing. What I want is for Arsenal to transmit energy and emotion to the fans.”
The Gunners take on newly-promoted Cardiff this weekend as they look to make it back-to-back Premier League wins.
Arsenalhopeto have Mesut Ozil back after he missed the win over West Ham with an illness.