How Arsenal are tapping into stars’ Wags as secret weapon to fire Arteta’s men to Premier League glory

AS the saying goes, “behind every every great man there’s a great woman”.

That rule of thumb appears to apply completely to Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal.

After years of obscurity where the club struggled to compete for the title, Arteta and Gunners sporting director Edu have cultivated a positive culture within the club.

Players on the pitch appear to be enjoying their football, having built a strong rapport with each other.

And it seems this relationship has extended to significant others of a number of Gunners stars.

Following their 5-0 thumping of Chelsea last week, a viral video of Martin Odegaard’s partner, Helene Spilling, dancing to Shakira’s “Waka, Waka” – adopted as Kai Havertz’s chant – typified this shift in culture.

Wag drama away from the pitch has been known to cause it’s fair share of problems for footballers in the past.

However, Arsenal have turned this proverbial chink in the armour into an extra boost as they hunt for a first Premier League title in 20 years.

A core group of Arsenal players including Odegaard, Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Leandro Trossard and Ben White have blossomed on the pitch while their partners have become a core group off it.

Helene, Sophie Weber, Tomali Benson, Laura Trossard Hilven and Milly White are often seen socialising together away from football.

They are often seen together on matchdays, including the second leg against Bayern Munich, and four of the women stayed together to see Arsenal thrash Sheffield United 6-0 in March.

This bond is said to have been strengthened by the club’s trip to Dubai during the winter break.

Arteta saw an opportunity to improve the players and invited players partners onto the trip, with the club putting on bonding sessions to help the group become closer.

The decision was greeted by scepticism, but the gamble has more than paid off, with Arsenal winning 10 out of 11 league games following the break.

The support network around the club’s players deserves huge credit pushing the club onwards and upwards according to Arteta and are “really helpful” in allowing players to settle.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Arteta said: “That’s great to see obviously because it’s needed.

“We have a lot of foreign players that obviously they have their families, wives, girlfriends around and they need support.

“They need to build those friendships and those close circles around them.

“We have created that, big credit to them and how much they have put into that because it’s really helpful for the team so if they are happy, much better because the players are gonna be happy and more settled.

“It gives you a much bigger sense of belonging somewhere when you really feel that you are part of something.”

While this group are the most prominent to feel the benefit from the club’s culture, it has also been seen to be a help to Lauren Fryer and Georgina Ramsdale, the partners of Declan Rice and Aaron Ramsdale respectively.

Arteta’s open arms policy naturally extends to whole squad, with the likes of relatively new signings Jakub Kiwior, David Raya and Jorginho seeing their partners – Claudia Kowalczyk, Tatiana Trouboul and Catherine Harding respectively – welcomed into the family.

The Spaniard added: “We do certain things, we try to bring everybody together to try to at least have the capacity to connect and then obviously a relationship.

“Whether you like somebody or want to spend time with somebody, that’s something super personal and something completely down to them.”

Arsenal have a one point lead at the top of the table to Manchester City, who have the pressure on them to win their game in hand to reclaim the top spot in the table.

The Gunners face Bournemouth, Manchester United and Everton to finish their season.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk