Time for Mikel Arteta to deliver Champions League after Arsenal’s two-year refit

08/05/2022

That £270m refit has built a new team. Two years ago, they made a deceptively auspicious start away in London, winning 3-0 at Fulham. Willian had a brilliant debut, and soon proved dismal, but of that 11, only Kieran Tierney, Gabriel Magalhaes and Granit Xhaka are likely to begin this season in the side, and either the Scot or the Swiss could be displaced by Zinchenko.

Arsenal start again with a capital derby, their trip to Crystal Palace selected as the division’s first game of the season. The precedent from last year bodes badly: they went to Brentford on a Friday night when, struck by Covid and with Ben White making a wretched debut – unlike Willian, his Arsenal career then picked up – they lost 2-0.

The Gunners scarcely felt ready for the start of last season; Martin Odegaard, Aaron Ramsdale and Takehiro Tomiyasu had not joined and, pointless at the end of August, they were in effect playing a 35-game season. “Everything that happened before Brentford was pretty strange and unique,” Arteta said. Now he senses a sea change. “It is different.”

Now their build-up has been almost ideal. “We had the pre-season that we wanted,” Arteta added. “It was well organised, we had good results, good performances, good preparation.”

Chelsea were demolished 4-0, Sevilla thrashed 6-0. Their pivotal piece of business was conducted early, with Gabriel Jesus headhunted to fill the striking void. No centre-forward got more than five league goals for the Gunners last year. The Brazilian has seven in five pre-season matches. They matter less but offer encouragement nonetheless.

Shorn of Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, plus a host of other exiled bigger names and ageing figures – Bernd Leno the latest departure from the group Arteta inherited – this is the Spaniard’s side. “It has always been my team,” he countered. However, he added: “We changed the squad massively and you feel that now the players we have are more specific and better for the way we want to play basically.”

If the youthful personnel afford him more of a chance, so could the fixture list.

Palace took four points from Arsenal last season but an opening four fixtures against the Eagles, Leicester, Bournemouth and Fulham look easier than last August, when Brentford, Chelsea and Manchester City beat Arsenal.

“At the end of the day people don’t want to look at the context, they just look at the result and how we started,” Arteta said. “We are going to be judged on whether we win football matches or not, it’s as simple as that.”

Time for Mikel Arteta to deliver Champions League after Arsenal’s two-year refit

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