Strange things can happen on the bench during a football match

The bench - a place for coaches to tweak their tactics, substitutes to support their team-mates and get ready to come on and make a decisive impact.

Or the place where you crack open a pack of choccies when you get bored?

During Arsenal’s 2-0 home win over Manchester United, TV cameras picked up a packet of Maltesers being shared around on the Gunners' bench.

Commentator Gary Neville was not impressed, and Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger may not have been too pleased to see his players having a picnic while the rest of the team were trying to secure his first ever league win over his nemesis Jose Mourinho.

Internet observers quickly dubbed the incident 'Malteser-gate' - however, it was later reported the hungry culprits were actually groundsmen rather than Arsenal players.

Nevertheless, Arsenal’s sweet display on the bench this weekend wasn't the first odd thing to take place in the dugout. Here are some other strange goings-on.

Arsene Wenger smoking

Hard to imagine now, but before Arsene Wenger arrived in north London, he would often light up a cigarette mid-match as he sat watching his team.

Wenger said that he would smoke in his younger years, external- when the health implications were not as widely advertised as they are today - to ease the stresses of management. He even worked as a cigarette salesman once!

“There is smoking and then there is smoking,” Wenger said. “When I was a player, nobody would ever tell you that you should not smoke.”

Wenger's history with cigarettes didn't stop him fining goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny £20,000 for lighting up in the dressing room at Southampton in 2015.

Diego Costa waxing Xabi Alonso

Defending champions Spain endured a torrid time at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, and were already heading home when Diego Costa and Xabi Alonso sat side by side to watch their team-mates beat Australia 3-0 in their final group game.

What else could Costa do during those 90 minutes but test the potential of sock tape as an emergency replacement for waxing strips?

It's fair to say the pair were left underwhelmed by the tape's effectiveness.

Lessons learned.

Wayne Shaw's pie-eating scandal

Sutton United's magical run to this season's FA Cup fifth round, and a tie against Premier League giants Arsenal, catapulted the non-league club into the spotlight.

One player who made the most of the extra attention during the cup run was Sutton's self-styled 'roly-poly goalie' Wayne Shaw.

With Arsenal comfortably ahead and Sutton's big night coming to an end, substitute Shaw appeared in the dug-out, and with TV cameras trained on him, took a bite from a hot pastry item.

Funny, people thought. Until it emerged that, during half-time, the bookmaker who was sponsoring Sutton for the big game had advertised odds on Shaw doing just that.

The gloss was quickly taken off Sutton's night and an investigation was launched by the FA over Shaw potentially breaching betting rules, with the 45-year-old keeper asked to resign from his position at the club.

"What happened didn't make us look very professional," said Sutton manager Paul Doswell.

Joachim Low's personal hygiene

Joachim Low is the mastermind behind Germany's World Cup-winning football team - a brilliant tactician, a superb coach, and also, a prolific nose-picker and crotch-scratcher.

The German boss has been seen multiple times picking his nose on the bench, and once went straight from mining his nostrils to a handshake with Cristiano Ronaldo.

Low also had to apologise when he was caught on camera stuffing his hand down his trousers and then sniffing it at Euro 2016.

A bit of decorum please, Jogi.

"I saw the pictures and obviously sometimes you do things subconsciously. It happened and I am sorry,” said Low.

Fergie's fright

Legendary Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson was known to have a bit of a temper.

So if you're his assistant, like Mike Phelan was, you don't want to do anything to upset him.

Anything like, burst a stray balloon right next to him, external when you're playing a massive game against rivals Chelsea.

Phelan did just that, and scared the living daylights out of Ferguson, who turned a even deeper tone of beetroot than usual before launching a blistering verbal assault on his number two.

A humble balloon had somehow managed to strike fear into one of the scariest managers in the league.

"That was an incident that made me famous," said Phelan. "[The balloon] got in my head, so I popped it and nearly lost my job!"

Marcelo Bielsa's coffee

A favourite coach of football hipsters everywhere, Argentine Marcelo Bielsa has managed clubs all over the world.

During his relatively recent stint at Marseille, Bielsa took time out from patrolling the touchline to sit on a cool box, which turned out to be a bit hotter than he was expecting.

A member of the Marseille staff had left Bielsa's coffee in a paper cup on the very same cool box moments earlier, which stood no chance against Bielsa's bum.

Ouch.

At least other clubs around France knew to look out for the guy after that.

Tony Adams' waistcoat

Real Madrid’s subs used the bench last weekend as a base from which to rinse Granada boss Tony Adams’ outfit.

What began as a bit of pointing and smirking at the big man's sartorial choices eventually descended into outright heckling as the La Liga giants enjoyed their four-goal lead.

According to a Spanish newspaper, it was playmaker Isco who shouted: "Hey, waiter. A Coca Cola!” (Other soft drinks are available, Isco!)

And Karim Benzema could be seen speculating that Adams might have a moonlighting gig dealing cards at a casino.

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