Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes that the Premier League competition is “as nothing we have seen before” while he prepares his Gunners team for the “most difficult” title race he has seen.
The Spaniard enters his fifth full season in North London and wants to end the 22-year-old waiting of Arsenal for a title of the top after the second place in each of the last three years.
Arsenal himself has been on the market with six new signing sessions of a total of £ 200 million in transfer costs – but Liverpool and Chelsea have invested more than £ 250 million themselves, where Manchester City also stimulated their talent by £ 150 million.
“The competition in the competition is now nothing we have seen before,” Arteta tells Roman Kemp of Sky Sports News, preparing his Arsenal team for the new season.
“We all know that to win the Premier League, you must be absolutely excellent, the level that is needed, something that we have not experienced yet and we want to win it all.
“The level of managers, the consistency of the squadrons that have been together for years, the way in which they increased their potential in the squadrons, the concept between players, quality they have brought, certainly it will be the most difficult.”
Arsenal lost last season in three consecutive title races – twice to Man City and once to Liverpool.
But at the time, no team has picked up more Premier League points than the Gunners – where Arteta often says that the only thing that is left for Arsenal is a trophy.
“I think you should use it,” says Arteta about the disappointment of the past three years.
“We need more points, that is clear. We have more points than any other team in the Premier League in the past three seasons and we have not won the Premier League. But that means we have done so many things well.
“We missed a few points in one of the seasons, and that is what we are going to try to get better.”
'Gyokees is very, very special'
Arsenal is stimulated by a new center after signing £ 63.5 million from Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP.
The Swedish striker scored 39 competition goals for the Portuguese club last season and immediately received iconic no. 14 shirt carried by club legend Thierry Henry.
“That is the recruitment process, that is one of the things that I was most interested in,” says Arteta when he was asked to choose Gyokeres from the shirt number.
“We have to take a player who can place that shirt on the first day, walk into the dressing room and everyone says:” He has it “. Viktor certainly has that.
“He has that charisma, he has that personality and he is a really confident boy. In the first few weeks we have already seen how he behaves, the way he behaves on the field. Of course everything is for him.
“If you look at his goals core record, we have not had a player who scored many goals in the past two seasons. That murderer Instinct, that capacity, that intuition in the box to get the ball and put it in the back of the net is something very, very special.
“The level of threat that he also offers and fears in the opposition. That is something that the players around him benefit.
“He gives us flexibility to attack in a different way, to threaten the opposition in a different way. Every time new blood comes in, something appears and a new energy appears.”
One of the first major decisions to make Arteta is whether Gyokeres or Kai Havertz should start in the central role in the season opener against Manchester United, live on Sky Sports' Super Sunday.
Both Havertz and Gyokeres scored in Arsenal's last pre -season match against Athletic Club – but Arteta insists that the couple could play side by side this season.
“Yes, they can play together,” says Arteta. “Especially one of the greatest qualities of Kai is that he can play in various positions. He did that with us, he did that at the highest level.
“Now we have options; on the right we have options, on the left we have options. That variety and that competition internally for places, the capacity to influence the game when we need it, will be a different level of threat.”
In the meantime, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard believes that the signing of Gyokeres could create more space for the other attacking players of the club on the field.
“It's always different and you have to adjust,” says the Norwegian. “It is now the same with Viktor; he has different qualities and you have to ensure that you get the best out of every player.
“He is a big boy and he is going to get a lot of attention and a lot will talk about him, so maybe it leaves more room for the rest of us.
“I think we should use every quality of every player in the best possible way. That's how I see it.”
Sky Sports to show 215 Live Premier League matches this season
From this season, the Premier League coverage of Sky Sports will increase from 128 games to at least 215 games that are exclusively live.
And 80 percent of all on television Premier League matches this season will be Sky Sports.