Mikel Arteta believes his Arsenal squad is in much better shape now than it was last season after David Raya became the Gunners’ fourth signing of the summer.
Raya’s arrival on an initial loan deal with an option to buy followed the signings of Declan Rice, Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber for a combined total of more than £200 million.
It has significantly improved the depth of the Arsenal squad at his disposal and despite the impressive 2-0 away win last season at Crystal Palace, tonight’s opponents, Arteta believes his squad is now “much more capable”.
“For big parts of the game you have to go to these grounds and impose yourself, and it will be very difficult to do that,” Arteta said of Crystal Palace.
“We have to play a physical game, and we now have a squad which is much more capable of having the capacity to play that game than before.
“They [Crystal Palace] are extremely well organised, the results they have got, they’ve been really consistent, they don’t concede too much and it’s going to be a tough test for us.
“Though it’s a test we like to have, to understand where we are, and how ready we are to go to these grounds and do what we want.
“The games are longer now too, more minutes to play, and how we start and finish the games will be critical so it’s something to bear in mind as well.”
The new approach to additional time in an effort to combat time wasting and make up for the time lost has caused debate across English football.
However, Arteta sees the news rules as only a benefit going forward.
“I love it because it gives you more options, better players, more chances to do what you can when you have to change the game,” he added.
“When we have to change things, we’re going to ask players to do it naturally, not to force it, when you don’t really know when that fits.”
