Edu piles more pressure on Mikel Arteta, no excuses after busy summer
Edu piles more pressure on Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta, reiterating his desire for improvement this incoming season.
Arsenal finished two points behind their fierce rivals Tottenham in the Champions League qualifying race last season, and they don’t want that to happen again this year.
Edu has reaffirmed his desire for Arsenal to outperform their season-ending performance, adding to the pressure on head coach Mikel Arteta.
Edu and the Arsenal faithful both anticipate a return to the top this time around.
The team has to be “far better” this season, according to the club’s technical director, since they have a tight “five-year plan” to bring the glory days back to the Emirates.
Edu and the club’s chiefs have invested heavily in the squad to achieve this, spending £150million last summer.
They spent more than £100 million to sign Marquinhos, Gabriel Jesus, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner, and Oleksandr Zinchenko, continuing their recent trend of lavish spending.
Edu piles pressure on Arteta
Prior to Arsenal’s first Premier League match of the year against Crystal Palace at Selhurst Park on Friday night, Arteta will be aware of the expectation on him.
Speaking at the premiere of ‘All or Nothing: Arsenal’ – a new Amazon documentary about the club’s 2021/22 campaign – Edu was asked if the squad is the strongest it’s been since his appointment in December 2019. “Yes, of course,” confidentially came the reply.
“The intention is to be better every season. Your sense in terms of squad balance, in terms of quality of the players, in terms of almost everything. So I think so far we were doing quite well and I hope we will finish the transfer season the way we have planned it.
“First of all I always have in front of me [in his office] the squad – because I dream for the squad every day I sit in my chair, I’m seeing there I’m just working myself and how can we improve, how can you be better.”
Edu is hoping for a better start to the season than last year, when Arsenal lost their opening three Premier League fixtures to Brentford, Chelsea, and Manchester City.
“To be fair, if you remember how we started we had an issue about injuries, Covid stuff, some challenges in that period, which cost us being 100 percent prepared,” Edu added.
“I’m not saying we are better prepared, I think we are in a different situation right now. I think our pre-season was great. The strategy, our pre-season as well it was fantastic to play important games and to travel, it gives us a chance to start well.”
Also read,
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Mikel Arteta hints at further signings as he shares Arsenal’s transfer plan
Gabriel Jesus could outscore Manchester City’s star Erling Haaland this season, Paul Merson
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