🦁 PL Previews: Arteta and Arsenal aiming to take the next step | OneFootball

Arsenal started 2021/22 poorly but, with the youngest team in the league, turned things around quickly and were in the hunt for a top four finish until the final day.

It’s another season without Champions League for the Gunners but they are back in Europe and it is a long time since this much optimism has been flowing through N5.

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.

Transfers 🔁

In: Gabriel Jesus (Man City, £45m), Oleksandr Zinchenko (Man City, £30m), Fábio Vieira (Porto, £30m), Matt Turner (New England Revolution, £4.7m), Marquinhos (São Paulo, £3m)

Out: Mattéo Guendouzi (Marseille, £9m), Dinos Mavropanos (£3m), Daniel Ballard (Sunderland, £2m), Omari Hutchinson (Chelsea, undisclosed), Alexandre Lacazette (Lyon, free), Marcelo Flores (Real Oviedo, loan), Mika Bierith (RKC Waalwijk, loan)

Transfer balance: -£98.7m

Key fixtures 📆

🔑 Key player: Gabriel Jesus

Last season, Arsenal’s top goalscorer in the league was Bukayo Saka, with 11 goals, including two penalties. It’s pretty obvious why they did not finish fourth.

And it wasn’t just about last season. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is the only player to score 15 times in a Premier League season for the Gunners in any of the last five campaigns. They haven’t scored 70 in a Premier League season since 2018/19 and 2016/17 is the only time in the last 12 seasons they have cracked the 75-goal mark.

Arsenal need goals and they have now signed a striker for the first time since Aubameyang arrived four-and-a-half years ago.

So there is hope and expectation but also pressure on Jesus. He has had a fantastic pre-season but is he ready to be the main man?

What has changed since last season? 🤔

A year ago the mood in north London was not good. Arsenal lost their three opening games of the season without scoring and it felt like the club was in freefall.

It is night and day compared to now. The Gunners rallied last season with the youngest team in the league. They have now moved on from the likes of Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette and are instead being led by the likes of Martin Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka.

This summer has seen two big new arrivals for the first XI — Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko both won four Premier League titles at Manchester City. Jesus will be tasked with adding the goals Arsenal have lacked in recent campaigns.

William Saliba is also set to begin his Arsenal career three years on from his signing from Saint-Étienne, while Fábio Vieira provides more depth.

That is now the test for the club, to show their best moments in 2021/22can be delivered more consistently and that one or two injuries will not sidetrack them.

Predicted XI 🔮

(4-3-3) — Ramsdale; Tomiyasu, White, Gabriel, Zinchenko; Ødegaard, Partey, Xhaka; Saka, G. Jesus, Martinelli

Where will they finish? 🏆

Premier League: 5th Europa League: Winners FA Cup: Quarter-finals EFL Cup: Semi-finals

Click here to see all of our season previews so far.