Atletico Madrid players were unable to shower after their training session at Arsenal's Emirates Stadium on Monday because the north London club failed to provide Diego Simeone's squad with hot water, according to a report in The Athletic.
After training in the rain, the La Liga side ultimately had to return via a team bus to their hotel rooms in dirty kits when they found there was no hot water in the Emirates changing room.
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Per the report, the hot water absence impacted both changing rooms and was fixed just 40 minutes after Arsenal were first informed of the issue, which would have been in time for the scheduled end of Simeone's session, had the Atletico Madrid manager not called time early on practice.
Atletico were the only team in attendance at the ground and so were the only ones affected by the water absence.
The Gunners have since reached out to their counterparts to apologise for inconvenience caused by the issue.
The Mail report that, despite Arsenal's best attempts to apologise, the situation "left Simeone furious" and prompted Atletico to make an official complaint.
While there have been some reports that Atletico may have reported Arsenal to Europe's governing body UEFA over the hot water absence, this is likely to have fallen on deaf ears.
Although UEFA does list showers with hot water as a basic requirement on matchdays, this rule doesn't apply to training sessions.
Arsenal may now fear that the circumstance could give Atletico Madrid extra motivation for tonight's clash.
Manager Simeone is known for attempting to build a "siege mentality" within his teams as fuel for the biggest games.
Simeone's experience and mentality is something Mikel Arteta touched on ahead of tonight's game.
The Arsenal manager said: "I think for how long he's [Simeone] been in the game and in the same club with the same players, how you still have that hand and that capacity to transmit such an energy and willingness to win.
"It's a very tough environment that we live in and to keep convincing players you have to be extraordinary as well.
"I don't know [him] personally but everything I heard about him is that he's so good at doing that. That's one of the reasons why you are able to sustain at that level."
Whether or not Arsenal intended to make the Atletico squad uncomfortable, they wouldn't be the first team to attempt to make an away dressing room less than welcoming to put off an opponent.
Wolfsburg: Back in 2015, Louis Van Gaal blamed Bundesliga club Wolfsburg for making their dressing room "too hot" before his Man United crashed out of the Champions League.
Turf Moor: Accusations have been made that the door leading out of the away changing room at Burnley's home ground is far too small, causing players to have to hunch uncomfortably when departing.
The door is best described by ex-Claret Jeff Hendricks, who said in 2016 :"It’s a lot smaller [than normal], I can tell you that.
“It is hard here. It is a hard place for teams to come to and we’ve got to make sure it stays that way.”
Unconventional seating: Before a match against Andre Villas Boas' Spurs in October 2013, Russian side Anzhi Makhachkala were reported to have replaced the away dressing room's benches with leather chairs. The aim was to keep the Londoners calm, relaxed, and lethargic.
The game ended 2-0 to Tottenham on the night, proving that the chairs didn't quite have the desired effect.
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21st October 2025
10:40am BST
