Mikel Arteta and his Arsenal players started plotting this season’s Premier League title challenge at a secret team meal on the final night of last season.
Arsenal had swept away Everton in a comfortable final-day victory, but were denied a first title in 20 years as Manchester City clung on to win the championship by two points with a win over West Ham.
No huge surprise there but some of the Arsenal players looked distraught on the Emirates pitch afterwards. So near, yet so far.
And the Arsenal manager revealed on the eve of the new season how he and his squad began to plot the end of Pep Guardiola’s City run of four consecutive titles.
“Since the last day last season,” he explained: “We had a gathering together with all the club players and the players were saying to me ‘we’re going to be better, we’re going to do it, we want more.’ They are the ones driving that ambition. That’s always positive.
“It was the same evening as the Everton game. Everybody was talking about the same thing, that we are not going to stop here and that we want much more.
“We know the things that we can still do better and how the players can still evolve. How we have evolved as a club is huge as well.
“How we feel playing at Emirates Stadium is another one of the areas where we have evolved. Those margins are huge and we have to really, really use them.
“My motivation comes from looking around and the people that I work with every single day. They are ready and they bring ideas. They are so willing to work.
“They are ruthless about the vision that we have and what we want to achieve. Then the players, their ability to put a smile on my face no matter what happens. They make me enjoy my job and that’s the biggest motivation.”
Arsenal will get a chance to put those words into action in front of a sold-out Emirates on the opening day of the season when Wolves are the visitors.
Arteta revealed that defender Jurrien Timber is fit and available after his injury-plagued first season at the club and that summer signing Riccardo Calafiori, a fellow contender for the left-back spot is also in contention. It could be that Alex Zinchenko, who has looked fit and strong throughout pre-season gets the nod to start, however.
