Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal are ready to go to a “different level” this season.
Arsenal will kick off the Premier League with a televised Friday night fixture with a tricky London derby for the second year. Twelve months ago, Arteta’s men endured a nightmare start with defeat at Brentford before losing to Chelsea and Manchester City which plunged the club into crisis.
This time, Arsenal go to Crystal Palace with fresh optimism, exciting signings and their sights set on pushing on from last year’s fifth placed finish. The fixture list never gets any easier and competition for the Champions League only gets tougher but Arsenal have bought big, made changes and have looked very sharp in pre-season.
Gunners boss Arteta said: “We are ready to go to a different level, and I am convinced of that. What the other teams are doing is obvious, and others had already a much a stronger squad than we had, and they still recruited four or five, or some of them, seven players.
“This is not going to get any easier, so we can just focus on what we are trying to do, what we can do, because we cannot do everything at the same time, and we are confident that we're going to be able to do it.”
City signed Erling Haaland, Liverpool got Darwin Nunez, Chelsea bought Raheem Sterling and Tottenham have spent big on the likes of Richarlison, Yves Bissouma and Djed Spence. Arsenal will not find it easy to break into the top four as their rivals have strengthened, but Arteta has also bought quality with Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko coming in from his former club Manchester City.
Arteta admits that their winning mentality together with their experience and know-how were the key factors in why he wanted to recruit them.
“Yes, and that was the aim of it,” said Arteta. “Those players have been inspired by top players, top professionals, ruthless winners for many years, and they were looking at them, and now it's their turn to do the same.
“We want them to inspire those younger players that we have in our squad to do the same, and to show them what it takes to win, and the level of detail, hunger and dedication that you need to keep winning.”
Arsenal also have a new look in defence as last season they were at their best when they had a settled back four. But William Saliba has returned from his loan at Marseille, has looked a class act in central defence alongside Gabriel. Ben White has gone to right back and Zinchenko is set to start the season at left back with both Takehiro Tomiyasu and Kieran Tierney still coming back from injuries.
Arteta said on Saliba: “I am really happy in how he’s adapted. Obviously it’s always something that you have to see, spending a year away from here in a completely different league. But playing the amount of minutes that he played and the way you could see he was growing and developing, he gave us a lot of reasons that he could be the player that we need.
“And in the last few weeks, he’s given us every reason to believe that we made the right decision, loaning him for a year because he now looks ready to go. I think we are all enthusiastic. We had the pre-season that we wanted, it was well organised, we had good results, good performances, good preparation.
“But now the ball starts to roll in a completely different context against a Premier League team and we know what to expect there. But it’s true, we are with a level of energy and ambition to have a successful season and we have to show that on the pitch tomorrow night.”
