90min
·1 August 2022
90min
·1 August 2022
Arsenal head into the 2022/23 season with high hopes after a promising 2021/22 campaign and fruitful summer.
The Gunners just about missed out on Champions League qualification to bitter rivals Tottenham on the final day of last season, but after a stagnant first 18 months under Mikel Arteta, the red half of north London have reason to be optimistic again.
There's been a flurry of transfer activity at Arsenal and you would expect such a young squad to keep on improving this year.
Here's 90min's Premier League season preview for Arsenal.
Numbers subject to change before end of transfer window
1) Bernd Leno2) Hector Bellerin3) Kieran Tierney4) Benjamin White5) Thomas Partey6) Gabriel7) Bukayo Saka8) Martin Odegaard9) Gabriel Jesus10) Emile Smith Rowe11) Gabriel Martinelli12) William Saliba13) Runar Alex Runarsson14) Eddie Nketiah15) Ainsley Maitland-Niles16) Rob Holding17) Cedric Soares18) Takehiro Tomiyasu19) Nicolas Pepe21) Fabio Vieira22) Pablo Mari23) Albert Sambi Lokonga24) Reiss Nelson25) Mohamed Elneny26) Folarin Balogun27) Marquinhos30) Matt Turner32) Aaron Ramsdale34) Granit Xhaka35) Oleksandr Zinchenko
Arsenal pride themselves on their team ethic and selfless style, but their crown jewel remains winger Bukayo Saka.
He finished last season as the Gunners' top scorer with 12 goals in all competitions (11 of which came in the league), won Arsenal's in-house player of the season award for a second successive year and was nominated for the PFA Player of the Year gong.
If he can continue improving at the rate he has so far in his young career, the 20-year-old could end the 2022/23 season considered as one the Premier League's best players.
The signing of striker Gabriel Jesus will transform Arsenal's attack, but every Premier League fan knows what he is going to offer.
So our pick here is fellow summer arrival Fabio Vieira, who only broke into Porto's starting lineup midway through last season. Nevertheless, he looked so impressive that the Gunners sought to splash nearly £30m up front on the playmaker, who is capable of playing in midfield and on the wing.
New signing Oleksandr Zinchenko sporting the Arsenal home kit / JUSTIN TALLIS/GettyImages
Arsenal's away kit is predominantly black with copper trim / Trevor Ruszkowski/ISI Photos/GettyImages
On paper, Arsenal are undoubtedly stronger this season compared to last.
Replacing Lacazette, who scored just four times in his final campaign in N5, with Jesus is a huge upgrade, while Arteta's men have looked formidable in pre-season.
Nevertheless, question marks remain over their resilience - they picked up fewer points from losing positions than any other Premier League side last season - and Arteta has struggled to get his charges firing when playing more than once a week.
Arsenal are strong and will continue to strengthen, but there are just too many other good teams ahead of them right now.