Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is determined to make sure this is the season where he finally ends the Gunners’ long wait for the Premier League title.
Arsenal have not won the league title since their incredible unbeaten season in 2003/04 and Wenger has come under serious pressure from supporters over the last half decade to get the club back on top.
With strong signings in Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez, Petr Cech and Granit Xhaka, Arsenal certainly have quality in abundance but their mid-season form has let them down over the past few years.
Wenger knows that every team heading into the season has hope of winning the title, but he’s out to make sure that this year it is Arsenal finishing on top, and he believes the opening three games could be key.
“There are plenty of clubs with big ambition. At the moment there are many big managers and many big clubs. It raises the ambition and the hope everywhere, but only one will win it,” Wenger told the club’s official website.
“We just have to make sure it is us. The competition will be very fierce, especially with Leicester winning it last year. Nobody expected that so some smaller clubs could hope to be in the fight for it too.
“They can say that the bigger clubs will drop points against each other, so it will be more open than ever but also more interesting. We’ve got a difficult start against Liverpool, then it’s Leicester straight away, then to Watford.
“In the first three games, we have to make sure that we are ready.”
Arsenal finished second in the league behind Leicester City last season but it wasn’t a clear representation of how their season went as the Gunners were barely in the title race during 2016.
Tottenham fought with Leicester for the title before a collapse in their final four games of the season allowed Arsenal in to sneak in front of them and finished as runners-up.
Wenger, though, will be desperate to make sure Arsenal can go one better next May and finally win the title that has escaped them for the last 12 years.
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