Mikel Arteta Arsenal
After three long months, the Premier League is finally about to return. Arsenal get their quest to finally beat Manchester City to the title underway with a 3pm kick off against Wolves on Saturday. Preparations for the season have gone pretty well for the Gunners. They enjoyed a successful tour of the United States where they played high quality opposition and were able to build up the fitness of key players. In their most recent two matches at the Emirates Stadium against Bayer Leverkusen and Lyon though, Mikel Arteta’s side have looked particularly raring to go.
“It looked like that to me,” Arteta said when asked if his side were ready for the start of the campaign after an impressive 2-0 win over Lyon on Sunday . “The way we started for sure. It’s maintaining that for 90 minutes. That’s the target and the objective that we need to have. There’s a lot positives to take from today’s game.”
Key to this has been the return of the Arsenal first team players who went the distance in this summer’s international competitions. Declan Rice grabbed two assists against Lyon and looked back to his off the ball best. Bukayo Saka meanwhile could have had a hat-trick, and David Raya showed the intensity of a man who is keen to win his first ever league title. Aaron Ramsdale is also back among the squad to provide competition. It comes after Arsenal’s decision to bring the Euros finalists back after just three weeks off.
“They have to be ready,” Arteta said of his four players who had gone the distance this summer. “These are the demands they have right now. We really look after them when they are with us, when we have the ability to give them days off, we do. We gave them days off before the start of the Euros and we have given them the rest that they needed. “The best thing to do is to look in their faces and there is that spark in their eyes, to come back and say: ‘I don’t want to miss it because I know how hard it is going to be.’ That is the best sign, that the players want it.”
This is something of a contrast to City. Guardiola’s side were able to win the Community Shield on penalties on Saturday against Manchester United, but had to do it without Rodri, Phil Foden, John Stones and Kyle Walker. All four players are set to return to training this week, over seven days after their Arsenal compatriots.
“We try to give them the best rest as possible as much as possible,” Guardiola said of the quartet. “We would like more time but it is what it is, we gave them a lot. All the players came back, the England players and Rodri will come back (this) week. What we like to give them is what it is, don’t think about the schedule. “What’s next? Training sessions, it’s just step by step, the next game, try to be smart enough to the training and the right amount of time, so be fresh in the mind. So rotate the players as much as possible, and game by game we’ll see what happens.”
This has the potential to be a real problem for City as they look to get their title defence up and running. Foden was last season’s player of the year, while Rodri has not been on the losing side in a Premier League game since City lost to Spurs in February 2023. City begin their campaign with a trip to Chelsea on opening day before a relatively kind run of fixtures against Ipswich, West Ham and Brentford. Despite the fortunate start, Guardiola will be wary of having so many key players not up to match sharpness. If Arsenal can seize on any slip up, even at this early stage, it could be decisive in the Premier League title race.
