5 Things you need to know about Arsenal ahead of the Premier League season
We start our previews for the upcoming season with the reigning Premier League champions who are now looking to retain the title for the first time in since the inception of the Premier League in 1992 which is kind of crazy, last season was undoubtedly a massive success for the Gunners but also one with huge disappointments littered throughout the year like the Carabao Cup final defeat and of course the Champions League final defeat to PSG on penalties back in May. The Premier League title race against Man City was one for the ages and a coming of age in a way for this Arsenal side after the defeat at the Etihad in April which had many people including me thinking that City would go on to win the league, they stuck together and claimed the title after City dropped points against Bournemouth in the penultimate game of the season. With the pressure eased this season in the Premier League I wonder if we’ll see a more entertaining Arsenal compared to the extremely physical and set-piece heavy side we saw last season, probably not but it will be interesting to see how Arteta evolves the team this season following the success of last year.
What has Arsenal’s transfer window looked like so far? Arsenal’s window has been massively centred around the Vinicius Junior saga that ended last week after the Brazilian signed a new six-year contract at Real Madrid, if we are to believe the reports Arsenal actually were quite close to getting his signature which shows that they are willing to go all out for a player like Vini Junior. They have brought in another Brazilian by the name of Bruno Guimaraes which is yet another brilliant signing in a midfield that is looking quite scary ahead of the upcoming season, they have also brought in Christos Tzolis who is a direct replacement for Leandro Trossard who has moved to Besiktas after a very successful spell at the Gunners. The window is still open for another 3 weeks so I would still expect Arsenal to be active as in my opinion they still need that superstar attacker to elevate a pretty average attack, could that be Julian Alvarez or someone else? I suppose we’ll wait and see. Could there still be a big outgoing in a squad that does look a bit bloated at the minute? I wonder if Miles Lewis-Skelly is going to be happy with another season as a squad player, I highly doubt it to be honest.
How has Arsenal’s pre-season looked so far? Arsenal kicked off their pre-season with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Girona in which Tzolis scored his first unofficial goal for the club along with goals from Havertz, Dowman and Gabriel Jesus. After that came a 3-1 loss against Real Betis where Arsenal conceded three first-half goals in an uncharacteristically sloppy performance in Dublin, as of writing this their last pre-season game was against Borussia Dortmund in which the German side came out 3-2 winners at the Emirates. They play against Como tomorrow before kicking off the season in the Community Shield against Man City on Sunday, their first Premier League game is against Coventry at the Emirates next Friday which kicks off the Premier League season. The pre-season results don’t look great but you should always take friendlies with a pinch of salt considering the amount of changes that get made throughout the 90 minutes, Arsenal are also still without some of their World Cup stars like Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, David Raya, Martin Zubimendi who normally are starters in this team. William Saliba will miss a good chunk of the start of the season with a back injury along with Jurrien Timber who is still recovering from a groin injury which kept him out of the World Cup, I wonder if Arteta will give the likes of Declan Rice and Bukayo Saka an extended recovery period after such a long season last year including the World Cup. You’d imagine so.
Who are the players to watch this season for Arsenal? This is actually quite a tough one but one player I’m definitely looking forward to seeing more from is Max Dowman after breaking through into the squad last season, at only 16 years of age it’s still crazy that he getting minutes for the Premier League champions. Another player I’m interested in seeing this season is Christos Tzolis who is coming to Arsenal after a ridiculous season for Club Brugge where he scored 22 goals and assisted 29 in 52 games, the Belgian League has been very hit or miss in the past so it’ll be interesting to see if he can replicate Trossard’s impact on that left-hand-side. One player that still has yet to impress me in an Arsenal shirt is Viktor Gyokeres, despite scoring over 20 goals last season I just think Arsenal could do so much better in that position but I’m open to being proved wrong in his second season for the Gunners. The final player I want to talk about is Bukayo Saka who had an injury-hit season last year and will be keen to show that he is still Arsenal’s best attacker after a relatively successful World Cup despite getting 0 minutes in the semi-final against Argentina which is thanks to Thomas Tuchel, a hat-trick against France in the 3rd place play-off should give him some momentum heading into this season.
Predictions for Arsenal’s season. This should be fun and I do want to preface that with the window still open things could massively change in this Arsenal team so do remember that if you’re reading this and I’m miles off it, in terms of the Premier League I still think Arsenal are the strongest team in the league as their squad depth is just so far superior to everyone else. It’s hard to see anyone else winning the league this season as there are just so many question marks for all the other contenders, for the Champions League I still think they are lacking that top quality attacker to get them over the line in tight games. They got a relatively easy path in the knockouts last season which was earned by finishing 1st in the league table but you’d imagine that won’t be the case two years in a row, if they do sign that superstar I fully expect Arsenal to go deep in the Champions League again this season. I also would expect to Arteta to prioritise one of the cups this season as he’s only won the FA cup once back in 2020 and never won the Carabao Cup as Arsenal manager, I suppose it all depends on the draw but I wouldn’t be shocked if Arteta took the FA cup a bit more serious this season. I do have Arsenal winning the league this season but I find it hard to see them winning anything else, maybe a Carabao cup?