Arsenal have traveled to the Swedish town of Östersund this week to face their football team in the Europa League and while the players will have known it would be cold, I’m not sure they were all entirely prepared for mountains of snow.
The likes of Mesut Ozil, Sead Kolasinac and Henrikh Mkhitaryan all took to social media to share their pictures and videos of the snow covering the ground when they landed in Sweden.
The players, many of whom aren’t used to such climates, genuinely seemed a little bit taken a-back at the sight of so much snow. It looks like some sort of winter wonderland.
The downside to all this pretty snow, however, apart from the biting cold, is that Arsenal will be playing on Östersunds FK’s AstroTurf pitch, which is why Jack Wilshere and Laurent Koscielny, who are both injury-prone, have been left in London.
Snow being shovelled out of the away end for the big @EuropaLeague clash tomorrow. Hope @Arsenal fans are bribing hot water bottles. #OstersundsFK pic.twitter.com/N7dNSYnCst
— Mike Braithwaite (@m_braithwaite23) February 14, 2018
And we're here. It's a tad nippy, I won't lie. ⛄️ pic.twitter.com/cdAU8ucnT2
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) February 14, 2018
Arrived for Graham Potter's press conference at what is usually a biathlon training centre. Channelling my inner #PyeongChang2018 ahead of #AFC presser later. pic.twitter.com/GdtIyzMvJM
— Mark Mann-Bryans (@MarkyMBryans) February 14, 2018
On Wednesday, images were released of the away end that the traveling Arsenal fans will be sitting in, and it was practically snowed under. Although, I imagine they will have sorted the issue by kick-off at 6pm tonight (UK time, Thursday).
Latest local forecast says temperature in Östersund will be -4 at kickoff tonight, but windchill will make it feel like -11.
— Mattias Karén (@MattiasKaren) February 15, 2018
Apparently, the temperate in Östersund tonight will be -4 degrees Celsius but the windchill factor will make it feel -11… so a bit chilly then? Better break out the snoods.