Mikel Arteta is focused on getting his message exactly right. He insists Arsenal are not preparing to defend their Premier League title. Instead, they are setting out to attack another one.
Remember Win the dog, the canine the manager brought to the club’s training ground a few years ago? She should now be called "Won". But it is when Arteta argues over another piece of wording that he reveals why he enters the new season with such energy and optimism.
Do not raise the subject of Arsenal’s stability with him. He prefers the word "consistency", along with more forceful ones like "ambition". The overall point is clear. When Arteta looks at the top of English football, he sees a settled environment at his own club and uncertainty elsewhere.
Among the so-called Big Six, the richest clubs in the country as ranked by Deloitte, there are new managers at Manchester City, Liverpool and Chelsea. Tottenham have a virtually new one, and Manchester United have a relatively new one. This has been a summer of unprecedented change in the Premier League, with nine clubs appointing a new man in charge. Of those still hoping for a title challenge, only Aston Villa have a fully established manager in Unai Emery.
Arteta has suddenly become the longest-serving manager in the division. He took over from Emery at Arsenal in December 2019. Emery is second on that list, having been at Villa for three years and nine months, and only one other manager, Daniel Farke at Leeds, has been at his club for more than three years.
When Arteta was given the Arsenal job, Pep Guardiola was two titles into his storied City tenure. Jürgen Klopp had won the Champions League at Liverpool and was on his way to winning the league that season, and José Mourinho had just joined Spurs.
Arteta has seen them all off, with Guardiola’s departure from City at the end of last season being the most significant single shift in the dynamics for the coming campaign.
Arteta is now the big beast, the only current manager to have won the Premier League. As Arsenal prepare for the season opener at home to Coventry on Friday night, it is hard to ignore the confidence they are projecting. With virtually all of their rivals in transition, uncertainty undercutting the excitement, and predictions difficult to make in the face of little actual evidence, Arsenal are reassured by their firm foundations. They sense opportunity, another title, the creation of a dynasty. That is the ultimate goal.
There is something more. Everything changed for them in the closing weeks of last season. City had done the hard work, clawing back a nine-point deficit from mid-March, a period when they had a game in hand. But in the five-match shootout that followed, City blinked first, drawing at Everton. Most people know how nerve-racking it was for Arsenal. Not least Arteta. The Emirates Stadium was a sea of anxiety when Arsenal last played there, against Burnley in the penultimate game of the season. They managed a 1-0 win.
Then City drew at Bournemouth and it was over. Arsenal’s 22-year wait, the oppressive weight, had ended. It is impossible to underestimate the feeling of liberation. Nobody can question the bottle of this team. Nobody will taunt them with the cry of "second again, olé, olé". It is clear Arteta and his players will feed off that, and perhaps it will lead to a more expansive style of football. The fear of falling short inhibited their game as the heat rose last time.
Arsenal have made changes behind the scenes, looking for marginal gains, most notably in the medical department. The head doctor, Zafar Iqbal, was mutually consented in early June, and Arnaldo Abrantes has come in from Aston Villa to replace him. If the players can stay fitter for longer, Arsenal believe they can stay ahead. They have also protected themselves with moves to deepen an already well-stocked squad. Bruno Guimarães is the most eye-catching addition, with Ezri Konsa about to follow.
Arsenal versus City still feels like the primary head-to-head. Guardiola had Arteta’s number last season, winning two and drawing one of the three meetings between the clubs. City were much the better team in the Carabao Cup final that they won 2-0. But that was under Guardiola, and that was with Rodri and Bernardo Silva. If Guardiola’s exit has hit City the hardest, then the departures of those commanding midfielders to Barcelona and Real Madrid respectively are not far behind.
City’s faith in their new manager, Enzo Maresca, is rooted in what they saw of him when he worked on their coaching staff. He was an assistant to Guardiola in the treble-winning season of 2022-23. Previously, he coached the Under-23s to the Premier League 2 title in 2020-21.
It is a well-thought-through appointment, the kind a well-run club makes. Yet at the same time, it is not one to quicken the pulse. Maresca has enormous shoes to fill. Ditto Elliot Anderson, the impressive young midfielder upon whom City have bet the house. Can City be better given the personnel losses they have sustained? They must surely do so given the direction of travel at Arsenal. City do retain the cheat code that is Erling Haaland.
There are parallels between City and Liverpool, who want their new manager, Andoni Iraola, to have a similar impact in his first season to what Arne Slot managed in 2024-25. Slot took Klopp’s team and glided to the title. Maybe consistency in the dugout is not everything?
On the other hand, Slot was given only one new player, Federico Chiesa, who barely played that season, and he essentially stuck with what had made the Klopp collective so successful. It was evolution, not revolution. When he tried the latter last season, Slot found that his tenure unravelled, although his rotten luck with injuries must be acknowledged. There was also the death of Diogo Jota.
Liverpool have moved on Andy Robertson, Ibrahima Konaté and, most crucially, Mohamed Salah, even if he was a shadow of his former self last season. Salah has not yet been replaced. It would be impossible to replace the prime-version of him, and Iraola, who has a number of injury concerns, has it all to do.
Coaxing more from Florian Wirtz and Alexander Isak is fundamental. Iraola’s style has the capacity to hold Anfield in thrall, with aggression, front-foot slickness and the boldness to go one-versus-one all over the pitch. How quickly can he impose it?
Chelsea will be interesting under Xabi Alonso, who has been allowed to add players to fit into the 3-4-2-1 he used to such stunning effect at Bayer Leverkusen. Alonso has also been permitted to break from the club’s youth-first signing model and bring in much-needed experience.
