The Athletic FC

The only way to score is of course to play

with a handbreak-off.

Hello, I'm Ian Stone.

This is Handbreak-Off,

the Arsenal podcast, brought to you by The Athletic.

We're going to be chatting Arsenal's 2-0 away win at Burnley on Saturday. And have a little look ahead to Slavia Prague tomorrow evening, Tuesday night. I'm joined by Amy Lawrence and Adrian Clark. Good morning. Hi, yeah. Morning. Morning. Nice to see you guys. During Michel Artetta's pre-match press conference, he was asked if he was ever

too stressed on a game day to eat. He responded, I'm Spanish and after heavy food, nice

player, I need a nap during matches when we play 3pm, 5pm, if I've had a heavy lunch at 12,

1pm is my body, is very smart, it goes nap time. And now I need action time. Adrian, could you eat before again? I don't quite know. I'm not totally sure, to me honestly. He was being, he was being enigmatic. And I like that about him, to be honest with you. Even questions about food. He doesn't answer in a straightforward way good for him could you eat before

a game adrian what was the routine yeah yeah i could definitely eat before i was it or something

i was quite relaxed like i'm not i wasn't particularly a nervous person i love football i love playing

football i couldn't wait to play football so it wasn't really stressed so yeah i could I could eat no problem at all. But if it was a three o'clock, I'd sometimes delay the breakfast and have a, like a fry-up type thing. I mean, we did, you used to have a fry-up. Yeah. I was offered to the Arsenal players on these trips away and stuff. But I would like prefer like an omelet and beans or something like that

it's more of a brunch I guess and then that'll see you through you wouldn't want to eat too

close to the game but I do know that after I left or the year I was out on loan Venga's first

year I was out on loan pretty much the whole season and I know that the lads really struggled

because they changed the meals.

Venka went with the obviously the fish and the plain boiled chicken and

broccoli. Potatoes and broccoli. But he would have it, you know, a three o'clock kicker.

You'd be having it at like 10 or 10.30 in the morning. And it's just disgusting, isn't it?

You don't want to be eating that really at that time of the day. So I do think that some of the boys struggled initially. But yeah, look, you've got to eat. You've got to put a fuel in your body. If you don't eat, you're going to play very well, I haven't. So, yeah, you've got to. Timing is everything, though, isn't it really? I mean, when I was playing five-aside recently, I'd have breakfast, and then I would delay my lunch till about four or five, and eat then, and then I'd be playing at 8.30, and then I'd be snacking after the game. So, you know, even old Jewish men playing five-aside, one has to regulate one's eating as much as possible.

Amy, I mean, if you're doing

...