Prepare for Arsenal’s aerial onslaught! Leaked footage shows PSG training with RUGBY TACKLE PADS so their keepers can cope in the Champions League final

If you were to have rocked up to the Campus Du Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday morning, it would have been fair to assume you’d come to the wrong place.

Looking down at the pitches, which were bathed in glorious sunshine, a training session was taking place. There were players being jostled around the turf by coaches and team-mates with rugby tackling pads on their arms.

Maybe you’d ended up at the training ground of rugby side Stade Français instead, and not that of Champions League holders PSG. It certainly didn’t look like a football training session.

But it was. PSG’s goalkeeping contingent, including No.1 Matvey Safonov, were practicing set-pieces, as they prepare to defend their European crown against Premier League side Arsenal in Budapest later this month.

A leaked clip posted by French media outlet RMC Sport has shown the shot-stoppers using rugby tackling pads to try and put one another off, as the man in goal attempts to collect a corner while under intense pressure.

It seems as though this is to simulate what it will be like playing against the physical nature of the Gunners when they face off at the Puskas Arena on 31 May.

Corners have been a hot topic ever since the last-minute drama that engulfed Arsenal’s 1-0 win over West Ham United at the London Stadium on Sunday.

In one of the most dramatic moments involving VAR in Premier League history, Callum Wilson thought he had rescued a point for the Hammers in stoppage time after Leandro Trossard fired the Gunners one step closer to the title in the 83rd minute.

But his goal was ruled out following a lengthy delay after his team-mate Pablo was adjudged to have fouled David Raya in the build-up. VAR official Darren England spent several minutes looking at replays of the incident before he sent referee Chris Kavanagh to the screen to review it further.

There, Kavanagh ruled that Pablo had a hold of Raya’s arm, impeding him from catching the ball or parrying it away, with Arsenal going on to see the game out and open up a five-point lead over Manchester City at the top of the table.

It has gone on to spring a widespread debate about the rules surrounding corners in the Premier League, with most set-pieces now resembling a battlefield, with two sets of players swarming all over each other in an attempt to get to the ball.

The Gunners are seen to be one of the best at winning such physical battles in the area. They have scored 17 goals from corners in the Premier League this season, a record number in the top flight.

Mikel Arteta’s side have been accused of starting the trend of blocking people and holding in the area when corners come in by Premier League legends such as Peter Schmeichel, although it seems to be a problem throughout the top flight.

A retired Premier League assistant referee, Darren Cann, has had enough of seeing the scraps from set-pieces, and on Sunday night’s Match of the Day, expressed his desire for the law surrounding set pieces to change.

‘I feel the time has come now for a law change, whereby no attackers are allowed in the six-yard box before a corner is taken,’ said Cann. ‘At goal-kicks, forwards are not allowed in the penalty area; at corners, they shouldn’t be allowed in the six-yard box until the ball is in play.

‘Lots of teams grapple at corners, sometimes before the ball has come into play and then obviously the referee can’t give a penalty or an indirect free kick if the ball is not in play, so this would create that natural separation and eradicate these kind of situations.’

Nevertheless, PSG appear to be wary of Arsenal’s tactics, and have started preparing for their aerial threat more than two weeks before the final is even contested.