Premier League side Arsenal has issued an apology to their Tuesday’s Champions League opponents Atletico Madrid after a hot water failure at the Emirates Stadium in London forced the latter to head to the hotel for showers after a training session.
A BBC report said that the La Liga side’s support staff had informed the Mikel Arteta-coached side at 18:45 BST about the lack of hot water availability at the stadium. Spanish newspaper Marca reported that Atletico players were angered by the unavailability.
Additionally, it is understood that there was an issue in the home dressing room as well, with regard to the unavailability of hot water. The teams, who were scheduled to finish their training at 19:30 BST, concluded the session 15 minutes before time and went to the hotel.
On the football pitch, Arteta praised Diego Simeone’s side for their willingness to win and having a high level of discipline and organisation on their side.
“First of all [with Simeone’s team], it is the willingness to win. You can sense that in every single ball, in every single yard, the way that they play. It’s about how they compete, and then after how they play. They are two very different things.
“The levels of organisation and discipline are really high, and then they have acquired a lot of talents throughout the years that are very specific for the way they want to play. They are very good at exploiting those opportunities,” Arteta said.
Arsenal are currently fifth on the points table with six points in two matches, having beaten the same opposition away from home and Olympiakos at home by a 2-0 margin to stay undefeated in the competition so far. Atletico are in 10th place on the points table. They lost 2-3 to Liverpool before beating Eintracht Frankfurt 5-1 to claim their first points.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
