“We’re gonna make it happen.”
That was the message Mikel Arteta delivered on the Emirates Stadium pitch at the end of the 2024–25 season, with emotion cracking his voice and the sense of another missed opportunity hanging heavy in the air.
For the third year in succession, Arsenal ended the season as the Premier League’s second best team—a fact which wasn’t even certain heading into the final weeks of the domestic campaign. After the unexpected surge of 2022–23 and the desperately near miss of 2023–24, the Gunners were a distant 10 points adrift of deserved champions Liverpool last term.
A 5–1 aggregate victory over Real Madrid tipped Arsenal into the Champions League semifinals, yet that European run would only offer another avenue of extinguished hope as Paris Saint-Germain eased Arteta’s injury-plagued outfit aside.
An extravagant summer spend has seemingly plugged the gaps which were ruthlessly exposed last season, prompting many—Arteta among them—to ready themselves for another push for glory which has thus far remained tantalisingly out of reach.
What Arsenal Hope to Achieve
Arsenal have long given up the pretence of targeting anywhere below first place in the Premier League. Naturally, that’s not to say they will fulfil those ambitions, but becoming the first iteration of the club since Arsène Wenger’s Invincibles to lift the trophy is undoubtedly the goal.
The club’s European objectives are more vague. Arsenal had gone 16 years without being involved in a Champions League semifinal before PSG were welcomed to the Emirates with a bizarrely bland cannon flag. Given the unrealistic demands of modern football, the Gunners will naturally be expected to automatically return to that lofty stage, but fans would likely accept a league phase exit if they win the league.
FA Cup or Carabao Cup triumphs would reset the club’s trophy drought which has run since success in the former competition five years ago, but neither silver pot would sate the club’s ever-growing ambitions.
Key Fixture Dates
For the first time in the fixture’s 129-year history, Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur faced off outside of the British Isles. Spurs came out on top in that pre-season bash and travel to the other side of north London for the real thing in November.
The Gunners have an unfriendly start to the season, with fixtures against Manchester United, Liverpool and Manchester City inside the opening six weeks of the new campaign.
Major Signings
Arsenal have gone big this summer. “The budget is like when you have your wedding,” Arteta explained, “you plan your wedding with your wife and you give her a budget and it’s never less, it’s always more.” There have been a fleet of new unions in north London this summer.
Christian Nørgaard and Cristhian Mosquera are at opposite ends of their careers but should serve as useful backup in midfield and defence respectively. The ex-Chelsea contingent of Kepa Arrizabalaga and Noni Madueke may not have been quite so warmly welcomed, but offer the same blanket of security.
Viktor Gyökeres and Martín Zubimendi represent the two major improvements to Arsenal’s starting XI. Gyökeres fills the yawning void at striker which has dogged the Gunners for years, while Zubimendi’s arrival could yet enhance other players.
By sidling into his familiar position at the base of midfield, the Spanish schemer should free up Declan Rice to canter between both boxes and stop Martin Ødegaard from constantly dropping deep to build up play.
Ones to Watch, Breakout Stars
Max Dowman has been the undisputed star of Arsenal’s mixed pre-season campaign. Even during the club’s underwhelming outings during their cross-continental flurry of friendlies, the languid 15-year-old has caught the eye. Dowman’s quality is nothing new.
During last season’s injury crisis, Arsenal furiously flicked through the Premier League’s rulebook in the hope of finding a way to register the spindly teen for senior football. It didn’t happen, but Dowman surely won’t have to wait long before making his top-flight bow.
Dowman has already missed the chance to surpass Ethan Nwaneri’s record as the Premier League’s youngest player by a handful of days, yet this structurally sound winger could be entitled to more than a fleeting cameo if he maintains the flashes of brilliance he has shown thus far.
Season Prediction
Arteta previewed the 2025–26 campaign by predicting that as many as nine teams could challenge for this season’s Premier League title. It’s worth bearing in mind that Arteta says a lot of things. This is, after all, the same figure who claimed that Arsenal were “100%” the best team in last term’s Champions League.
The race for Premier League glory may not be so widespread, but Arsenal will surely be part of it, especially if their key figures can remain fit. The painfully long absences of Ødegaard and Bukayo Saka last term blunted the frontline to a greater extent than the post-Christmas striker shortage. Gyökeres’s adaptation to the Premier League could prove pivotal, although the team should still boast one of the best defensive rearguards in the division.
Unfortunately for the Gunners, everyone else has also improved. Manchester City and Chelsea got their business done early and well while Liverpool were already the league’s best team before adding £250 million worth of talent.
“This group of players, I’m telling you, they have the hunger, they have the quality, they have the talent,” Arteta promised the home faithful last May. Whether those intangibles will be enough to end their run of runners-up finishes seems unlikely.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Arsenal 2025–26 Season Preview: Trophies the Target for Reinforced Gunners.
