Mikel Arteta put Ivan Toney tweet on tactics board to motivate Arsenal players before Brentford rematch

Mikel Arteta used an old tweet from Ivan Toney to motivate his Arsenal players before their rematch with Brentford last season, the latest episodes of All or Nothing have revealed.

The Gunners lost their opening match of the 2021/22 campaign, getting beaten 2-0 away to Brentford, with Sergi Canos and Christian Norgaard both getting on the score sheet.

After the match, striker Toney tweeted, ‘Nice kick about with the boys’ – a comment which not only wound up Arsenal fans but also angered their manager too.

When the reverse fixture rolled around in February, six whole months later, Arteta put the tweet on the dressing room tactics board and used it to fire up his players.

‘Before I go, because it’s still in my stomach and I have managed to keep it for four months, five months, six months,’ said the Spanish coach, pointing to the tweet on the screen.

‘This is Toney after the game when we played at Brentford. You know what he did? You know his tweet? Nice kick about with the boys this afternoon.

‘So today they play in our house, guys there is only one team on that f***ing pitch – and it’s us! Only one team, it’s like they don’t play football. We take that f***ing ball, we take the game, we go for it and let’s f***ing win this game!’

The team talk appeared to do the trick, with Arsenal getting revenge at the Emirates and beating Brentford 2-1 – while Alexandre Lacazette even mimicked Toney’s tweet on social media afterwards.

Similarly, Wolves midfielder Ruben Neves had also taken a swipe at the Gunners saying they celebrated their away win at Molineux as if they had won the Premier League title.

Due to a weird fixture quirk as a result of postponed matches, the two teams faced each other again two weeks later and, while Arteta referenced Neves’ remark, this time he chose to fire up his players by using Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.