THE doors to Arsenal's training ground at London Colney are rarely opened to outsiders.

Thanks to Tiger Beer, we became the privileged few to see just what makes the most entertaining team in Europe tick.

The moment you enter the main door of the centre, you are required to take off your shoes and put on a protective poncho over the feet.

As long as you are in the building, you must use the poncho. Everybody does it, including the biggest stars at the club.

We were told this is a direct order from manager Arsene Wenger, who acquired this habit from his coaching stint in Japan.

Apparently, he is obsessed with cleanliness in the centre, hence the 'no-shoes' policy.

We were given a tour of the first-team's dressing room. We had a good laugh when we were at Cesc Fabregas' corner.

There is a picture of him, but someone has cheekily drawn a hat and moustache over his face.

It was hilarious. Probably a prank by a mischievous team-mate.

We were shown the boot-room - the place where the players' boots are kept, cleaned and serviced.

There were rows and rows of boots hanging on pegs on the wall, at least five pairs for each player.

But one player's boots was missing. Robin van Persie, injured for most of the season with injury, had taken all his gear and returned home to Holland.

There is a notice board in the dressing room, which has several messages and newspaper articles pinned on it.

INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES

They are mostly inspirational quotes from players in the Premiership and Wenger, put up there as a reminder to the Gunners.

We moved on to take a look at the training facilities.

The state-of-the-art swimming pool is the main attraction, equipped with water jets for hydrotherapy and an electronically adjustable floorboard to cater to the different heights of the players.

This is to help the players recover faster from their exertions or injuries.

We went to the gym and saw an interesting device. It resembles a rectangle stand with several discs on it.

One of the fitness trainers explained that this is a device to help players hone their reaction.

How does it work? The player is supposed to hit all the discs that light up as fast as possible in a 22-second circuit.

Players who are alert and agile can achieve 50 hits in one circuit. Now, that is fast.

We went out to the training pitch to watch the first-team train.

They did some stretching and light jogging, before proceeding to play some head tennis.

The head tennis session may be just a light-hearted workout, but players took it really seriously.

It was very competitive, with William Gallas almost blowing his top after assistant manager Pat Rice blew the whistle for several decisions against him.

It was clear that there are cliques in the Arsenal team.

The African contingent always seem to stick together.

They joked and sang, sometimes dancing a little jig, leaving the other team-mates out of their conversations. It's not a healthy sign.

After training, we were invited to the cafeteria to have lunch with the players.

NUTRITION

We spoke to the chef and he said nutrition is a huge aspect of professional football.

The nutritional values of every single dish is carefully calculated and the dishes vary depending on the day's training needs.

For instance, on a normal day, the players can enjoy sumptuous dishes like roast beef. But on match-day, they have high-fibre meals with lots of fruits and vegetables.

No phone calls are allowed at the dining area, yet another rule imposed by Wenger.

Anyone caught using the phone at the dining table faces a £50 ($130) fine.

Wenger believes eating together as a team, undisturbed, is another way of fostering team-spirit.

Well, as far as we could see, it is not working as well as it should.

Skipper Gallas and goalkeeper Jens Lehmann did not even show up for lunch.

We happily took their places and ate to our hearts' content, chatting with the players, taking pictures and getting autographs.

Just living out the Arsenal dream.