2026-08-21 08:50:07
Mikel Arteta has called for Arsenal to show “desire and ambition” in the defence of their Premier League title.
The Gunners kick off the new campaign against promoted Coventry on Friday (21.08.26) and the coach says his players must prove themselves again after the club secured their first league title for 22 years last term.
Arteta said: “We need to take this organically because it’s going to be a long marathon.
“What we need to show is that desire and ambition to be better than we were last season, a month ago, or a week ago when we played Man City. We have the ability to improve, to evolve, and that’s what I sense and I feel around the club and especially around the players.”
Arsenal are bidding to retain the league title for the first time since the 1930s but Arteta is relishing the fact that his side are the ones being “hunted”.
The Spanish manager said: “Today, no, because we start from scratch and we’re going to have to prove we have the level to go back to that position again.
“But that happened in the last three seasons – at some point we were first, at some point we were chasing it, and you never know what’s better.
“You give me the choice, I want to be first, I want to be hunted, and I want to be in control of our future, rather than depending on somebody else.”
Meanwhile, Arteta stressed that he is confident that academy graduate Myles Lewis-Skelly, 19, will stay at the club amid speculation linking him with a move away.
He said: “The players that have been raised in our system, and they feel that love and that connection with the club, bring something else, there’s no question about that.
“We need to look after them in a really special way because they bring value that is very difficult to find. That’s why, when we can, we want to protect those assets as much as possible, develop them and make them extremely important for the club.”
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