Mikel Arteta continues to set a bullish tone for the new season demanding “more from everybody” as Arsenal look to build on consecutive title challenges by winning the Premier League.
While the Gunners have closed the gap on Manchester City in recent years, the Spaniard is well aware that his squad can’t be allowed to rest on their laurels. Nor does he want them wallowing in the disappointment of last season’s near miss. Instead, he has everyone focusing on the future and the small margins that could make the difference this time around.
Preparations for the new campaign began with a summer review of the last campaign followed by an early training camp in Marbella for players not on international duty. The club are also in the process of ruthlessly reshaping the squad. Long-standing squad members who’ve found themselves on the fringes of things are on their way out and new faces, most notably Italy international Riccardo Calafiori, are set to be welcomed into the fold.
“I think the message is very clear – we need more from everybody,” Arteta told a press conference ahead of Sunday’s friendly with Manchester United in Los Angeles.
“That means personally I have to raise my standards and I need to bring something that I haven’t brought yet, and individually and collectively we have to do the same.
“And for our people, it is the same – the more they help us, the better the chance will be to win the Premier League. That’s what we want, so we need to work every day with that excitement and understanding the difficulty of it. When difficult times come, we need to be together and go through them efficiently.”
Given the energy expended chasing down the Manchester City juggernaut, the manager could be excused for showing fatigue in such a Sisyphean task.
To the contrary, he says he takes inspiration from last season’s achievements and the excitement his players are showing for the task at hand.
“First of all, we analyse what we did, and have a clear perspective of how we achieved what we achieved last year and why we didn’t achieve what we wanted, which was ultimately to win major trophies, and especially how close we came to becoming Premier League champions. It’s realising the things that we need to do better, and improve.
“We know the margins we need to do that because at the level we are at the moment, there is a very tiny margin to improve and we are trying to have clarity on which margins those are and how we’re going to improve them.
“My motivation and belief is looking at those boys and how much they want it, looking around the club and the excitement that is around it, and the fact that we really want it.”
Asked what it will take to win the title, he joked: “114 points – if we do that we will win the league for sure!
“This is the objective and from there let’s see what we can get, but today that has to be the target, win every single game and earn the right to win it and have the biggest probability on the opponent to win the game.
“When we have difficulties, we still need to be better than the opponent, so that’s the objective for the team.”
