Mikel Arteta confident Arsenal ‘ready to go to a different level’ with signings

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal are “ready to go to a different level” this season, suggesting the arrivals of Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko from Manchester City will add a winning edge to a side that finished fifth in 2021-22.

Arsenal are looking for a return to Champions League football at the sixth time of asking and begin their campaign on Friday at Selhurst Park, where Crystal Palace have made their lives distinctly uncomfortable in recent years. They come off the back of an uncommonly serene pre-season in which the starting XI has been noticeably strengthened and no sagas surrounding key players have occupied the narrative. Although they fell agonisingly short of the top four last season after a late slump, Arteta senses they are poised to go one better amid a crowded field of contenders.

“We are ready to go to a different level, and I am convinced of that,” he said. “What the other teams are doing is obvious; others had already a much stronger squad than we had, and they still recruited four or five, or some of them seven players.

“This is not going to get any easier, so we can just focus on what we are trying to do, what we can do, because we cannot do everything at the same time. We are confident that we’re going to be able to do it.”

Jesus was a long-term target to fill Arsenal’s centre-forward role and has been prolific this summer, scoring seven times in a warmup schedule that included crushing wins over Chelsea and Sevilla. He and the versatile Zinchenko, who is operating at left-back with Kieran Tierney returning to fitness, cost a total of about £75m; it seems canny business in today’s market given both players are still only 25 and have won four league titles apiece.

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