Arteta excited for new season, says Arsenal will have to improve again

Compared to last summer when Arsenal were quick to integrate new players into a comprehensive pre-season schedule, Mikel Arteta has had to contend with a tricky transfer market and international tournaments robbing him of time on the training ground with key players. 

All the same, the Spaniard insists he’s excited for the year ahead and another crack at winning the Premier League title that has eluded his players in the last two seasons. 

Ahead of Arsenal’s opening game of the 24/25 campaign against Wolves, Arteta told his pre-game press conference: 

“We are really excited. We’ve been missing the competition for many weeks, too long for us, so we’re willing to start, really enthusiastic about it. 

“We had a really challenging pre-season, but we have managed to adapt and it was a great challenge for everybody to adapt to different groups, different stages, playing different conditions. We took it as an opportunity and a good challenge and the team has looked really sharp.”

After two near-misses, Arsenal are hoping it’s third time lucky in the bid to overturn Manchester City’s dominance. It’s going to take a gargantuan effort by the manager, staff and players to produce the consistency needed across 38 league games. 

“It’s like you’re trying to climb the highest mountain,” he said. “It’s the most difficult league in the world and you feel surrounded by a lot of people who have the same ambition every single day to achieve it. We’re certainly going to try.”

To achieve his aims, Arteta admits he needs his players on their toes from the get-go.

“It’s the demands that we put internally,” he said. “They have to be much higher than anybody can ever think of, putting us in any position that we feel the pressure.

“That’s the level that we have to hit every single day here. And if we do that, obviously our level will increase and everybody will benefit from that.”

Asked what it will take to win the league, he continued: “Break more records again and earn more points, for sure. It won’t be enough [if we don’t do that] given the level we compete. Every season is getting harder, we’ll have to improve for sure. 

“I don’t know what perfect is, but it has to be very close to the numbers we’ve seen in recent years, that’s for sure.”

“When you look ahead and see everything we’re doing and everybody is so enthusiastic about it, that willingness to improve, to get better, to keep demanding [more] from each other, to look for higher ceilings, this is what I think, everybody needs. It’s inspiring and every day there’s something new to look at. We have created that culture and we have to keep going.”

With the transfer market open for two more weeks, there are still opportunities for Arteta and Edu to further strengthen the squad. So far they’ve spent around £60 million making David Raya’s move from Brentford permanent and bringing in Riccardo Calafiori from Bologna.

It looks like Mikel Merino, Real Sociedad’s Spain international, will also join the roster, while a number of players could yet leave. Eddie Nketiah and Reiss Nelson seem like prime candidates to follow Emile Smith Rowe out of the door while Aaron Ramsdale’s future also needs to be resolved. 

“After the season, we had two objectives,” said Arteta. “The main one and the most important one was to make sure we’re still very much in love with our players and find ways to improve them. And then, okay, if there are certain opportunities in the market to improve the squad, we look at that. That’s what we’ve been trying to do. 

“The main focus for me and the coaching staff is to improve our players and focus on those fine margins in everything that we do to give them the best possibility to find the level that they probably hadn’t even dreamed about.

“That’s what we have to do, and then we have to add something if we don’t have it in our team or in our academy. Then obviously we have to recruit.”

He added: “The market is open, things can happen, that’s always a possibility.”