MIKEL ARTETA has been tapping up England rugby boss Eddie Jones and big hitters from American sport as Arsenal tilt for the title.
The Gunners’ manager has kept up his regular chats with a group with Jones and Matt LaFleur of the Green Bay Packers.
Arteta and the rest of the brains trust swap ideas and share headaches over Zoom and Jones has had the Arsenal chief into England camp in Bagshot.
Jones 62, said: “He’s a super bright young coach. It’s like Alcoholics Anonymous. We all go in and share our problems and everyone tells you what they think. It’s fantastic.
“We’ve got Mikel, Matt LaFleur the Green Bay Packers head coach, George Karl who’s an NBA hall of famer, Mike Dunlap who was Michael Jordan’s head coach when he bought the Hornets. We’ve got all these guys in the same room.
“We just share stories and each other’s problems and try and come up with ideas of how we can take coaching forward. He (Arteta) is a brilliant young guy.”
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Jones was glued to the Amazon All or Nothing Gunners documentary and has picked up tips from the Spaniard who is over 20 years younger than him.
And the Aussie will urge his England rugby side to take a leaf out of Arsenal’s book with a year to go to the Rugby World Cup.
Jones added: “Look how fast Arsenal get out of the blocks. Every game they’re at it. They play with energy, they know how they want to play, they put the opposition on the back foot.
“In rugby – and we’ve been good at it at times and not so good at other times – 75 per cent of Test matches are won by the team who score the first try.
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“I don’t know what the percentage would be in the Premier League for teams who score the first try but I’d imagine it would be high.”
Arsenal have a four point lead in the table after another positive weekend for Arteta’s team.
They had to dig deep to win at Leeds amid late VAR controversy.
Later Liverpool won a pulsating match against Manchester City at Anfield to stop Pep Guardiola’s side from closing the gap.
Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk
