Another big summer transfer window awaits Arsenal and the fact that the foundations for a successful one have already been laid could be great news heading into the next couple of months.
Whilst the Gunners' quest to be crowned this season's Premier League champions are set to end in failure following Sunday's 3-0 defeat against Brighton & Hove Albion, leaving Manchester City on the brink as a result, it's worth pointing out what steps were taken for Mikel Arteta's side to even be in a title challenge.
"Obviously the physical aspect is very important," the Spaniard outlined when speaking to the club's official website last summer. "After five weeks, the players need to get in good shape and the best possible condition to compete at the levels that the Premier League requires.
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"Then mentally, we need to prepare the team with the ideas that we have, with the values that we have, with the ambition that we want to take into the league. Third, to get the cohesion of the team right, the understanding of the game, what we are looking for, our game model, our principles, and how we're going to develop that in the next five weeks to get to the Premier League in the best possible stage."
Now even with two more weeks of the 2022/23 campaign, it's safe to say Arsenal are on course to meet the first of the three aforementioned requirements ahead of next season especially as there are no major summer tournaments taking place which means. the majority of the first-team squad should be ready for the start of pre-season training.
With that said, the senior players that are likely to be selected for international duty next month with qualification double-headers taking place across the globe shouldn't be far behind in joining up with the rest of the squad if, as expected, they are afforded extra time off.
If the above message from Arteta came after missing out on a top-four finish then one can safely assume he will be drilling home what's expected of the squad next season as winning the Premier League title has to be the aim as it looks like they will fall short against Man City.
In terms of squad cohesion, getting deals done for Marquinhos, Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner and Gabriel Jesus before the second week of July certainly helped as aside from Vieira, the Gunners' summer signings all played some part in the first three fixtures of the pre-season schedule.
Then Oleksandr Zinchenko arrived before the end of July and was able to feature against Chelsea and Sevilla. As things have turned out, all of this was beneficial for Arteta. He had his squad in place before the opener against Crystal Palace on August 5 and the win at Selhurst Park was ultimately the catalyst for a title challenge.
Those five deals, to a greater extent the timing of them, can act as a blueprint for Arsenal this summer amid links to Declan Rice and Moises Caicedo, for example. As previously reported by football.london, the former is a priority signing whilst the latter has his admirers at the Emirates Stadium.
But what would be the chances of any of the pair being integrated into the Gunners squad whilst on the USA tour in the summer, thus affording Arteta the opportunity to improve the cohesion of his team in games against MLS All-Stars, Manchester United and Barcelona?
Well, for Rice, Caicedo or any new Arsenal signing to be involved in all three games on the USA tour they would ideally have to be unveiled before the first game on July 19. That is more than enough time for Arteta and sporting director Edu to wrap up deals before this particular deadline.
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