Arsenal stars, including Emile Smith Rowe and Ben White, had their first nervous glimpse of the fly-on-the wall documentary, All or Nothing Arsenal, at a special screening in London on Tuesday night.
Players and manager, Mikel Arteta, along with his wife and children, braved a private screening of the first two episodes of the eight-part docuseries, with 150 invited guests.
The staff at Arsenal spent all of last season under the watchful eye of scores of Amazon Prime Video cameras and admit that they quickly forgot they were even there, leaving them curious, and perhaps a little anxious, about what and who made the cut.
Takehiro Tomiyasu, Rob Holding and Kieran Tierney were also in the audience, slipping quickly inside the Islington Assembly Hall, in north London, avoiding further scrutiny from the ranks of journalists, bloggers and influencers edging the red carpet.
'You forget about the cameras instantly because you don't see anything,' admitted defender Ben White. 'They are all up in the ceilings, in the walls, everywhere.'
'Sometimes you see a bit of movement and you know they are following you,' he told Sportsmail ahead of the screening.
The Prime Video fly-on-the-wall series has already featured Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League.
The first three – of eight - episodes in the Arsenal series will be streamed on Prime Video from Thursday, eventually reaching 240 countries and territories.
A lot of the early action centres on manager Mikel Arteta's struggle to help his team recover from a disastrous start to last season's campaign and then find consistency in the battle for a Champions League spot, which they narrowly missed.
In the initial instalments, the strain on the manager is plain to see as he tries to take the pressure off his young side and imbue them with confidence. Arteta employs a series of unorthodox practices and preparations to spark his team into life.
At Leicester, he asks the team to vigorously rub their palms together and then hold hands to generate a bubble of energy; before travelling to Liverpool, he blasts 'You'll Never Walk Alone' across the London Colney training ground to prepare for the atmosphere at Liverpool, and in the minutes before his side go out to face Spurs at the Emirates, he asks club photographer and life long fan, Stuart MacFarlane, to address them.
'I f*****g love this football club,' the photographer, who has been at Arsenal for 30 years, told the players. 'And I f******g love all of you.'
MacFarlane implored the players to get stuck in.
'First f*****g tackle, listen to the crowd, they will f*****g be on you straight away,' he urged. 'Win every tackle.'
White, a £50million summer signing, did not need to be asked twice. Within two minutes of the referee's whistle, he flew into a tackle to dispossess Tottenham forward Son Heung-Min.
'Someone like him speaking to us, the amount of history he has with the club, it's incredible,' said White, who admitted MacFarlane's words had made an impact.
'You need a tackle like that every game, it's not just in the derby. You need it in every Premier League game. Everyone fighting. [The tackle] seemed to get the tempo and we were fighting.'
Arsenal were irresistible and raced to a 3-0 lead in the first half, eventually winning 3-1.
Emile Smith Rowe agrees MacFarlane made a difference that day in September.
'It was a good moment,' the young player told Sportsmail.
'For him to speak like that, it was good. We went on to perform as well. We had to make sure we performed for him. I love him.'
And Smith Rowe appreciates the innovative pre-match routines Arteta delivers, even if they do look a bit weird to outsiders.
'It is stuff we have not had before,' said the midfielder. 'It is motivation, it gives us the energy to go and perform. That is really important for us.'
Nahanortu
1
messi
Sanchez24
0
why I don't see #Visit Rwanda on their shirt?
Davidchris1999
0
what??? of all teams, you bring man utd here? LOL.. man utd will be drowning this season.. fos sure.. challenging man city is just a dream for united. heck.. you might be finishing outside top 6.
Two things that can unite those two clubs now, Both play in England, both are in UEL, apart from those they are two complete different leagues, they don't even fit to be in the same sentence.
Sahbceioz
0
but still ur going 4 lady's night man UTD z better than u
what??? of all teams, you bring man utd here? LOL.. man utd will be drowning this season.. fos sure.. challenging man city is just a dream for united. heck.. you might be finishing outside top 6.
juoaekmrsz
2
but still ur going 4 lady's night man UTD z better than u