‘I created a home gym, trained like an animal'

When the Covid-19 pandemic put football on pause back in March, Dani Ceballos resolved to use lockdown in a positive way - and the results speak for themselves.

The Spain international was outstanding after the restart, delivering a series of superb displays as we finished the campaign on a high with an Emirates FA Cup win.

“Unfortunately the pandemic happened, but on a personal level and from an Arsenal perspective it helped us because we were able to go home and reset,” Ceballos told Arsenal Digital. 

“The coach spoke to me a lot, as he did with many other players at the club. Then when we came back, the team started to progress. We set ourselves the objective of doing better than we had been doing before the pandemic, and I think from that moment forward we were a different team and were able to do well.

“It wasn’t really a lockdown for me,” he added. “I created a gym at home and trained like an animal. I knew that when we came back we’d only have 11 games left and I’d need to give everything I had to help the club finish as high as possible. 

“I think you saw the best of me because the team was improving and because during the month and a half of lockdown I trained every single day. I think you could see on the pitch that I was in good shape physically and that’s why I was able to perform so well after the restart.”