Kieran Tierney makes claim about what training under Mikel Arteta is really like at Arsenal

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After signing for the club back in 2019 under Unai Emery, it wouldn’t be a surprise if this summer represented the end of Kieran Tierney’s journey at Arsenal.

Tierney has made 124 appearances for Arsenal in total, a player who was once envisioned as a future club captain, were it not for his injuries.

And whilst his fitness issues have definitely played a part, Mikel Arteta seemingly just doesn’t think the 27-year-old is a good fit for his plans, a player he initially leaned upon as Arsenal manager.

Tierney signed in the same summer as the likes of Nicolas Pepe, William Saliba, Gabriel Martinelli and Dani Ceballos – a quintet who had enjoyed differing success.

But with Arsenal signing Riccardo Calafiori this summer, it seems increasingly unlikely that there’s a way back for the Scot in Arteta’s plans.

That being said, when speaking to The Athletic, Tierney has now shared some insight into Arteta’s training sessions at Arsenal, ones he perhaps won’t enjoy for too much longer.

Kieran Tierney says every Arsenal training session has a winner and loser

As mentioned, Tierney was crucial for Arteta when he first arrived as manager in 2019, often one of those dragging a struggling Arsenal side to results.

But Oleksandr Zinchenko’s arrival seemed like the most significant turning point, when Arsenal began exploring life using inverted full-backs.

READ MORE: William Saliba and Declan Rice left blown away by £45m Arsenal player in 4-1 win against Bayer Leverkusen

That being said, Tierney rarely has a bad word to say about Arsenal despite his difficult situation, and has been praising the competitiveness of Arteta’s training.

He shared: “He would set you targets. Whether it is this amount of goals from set pieces until the end of the season, if you’re on course to do it, just wee things like that to motivate you.

“In training, everything is competitive. Races in the warm-up, passing drills had a competitive nature, whether it’s who is first to go round the circle without making a mistake. Everything has a winner and a loser.”

All that being said, perhaps Arsenal may be careful about moving Tierney on too quickly in the coming weeks whilst they assess Jurrien Timber’s new injury – even if it isn’t initially thought to be too significant.