In the week that Arsenal players started returning for pre-season, all of them feeling excited in the way that only new champions can, they found their manager wasn’t always as effusive. It actually depended on the day. One morning, Mikel Arteta would be beaming. The next, he would be ultra-serious. He would always be intense, however, like treating the Community Shield as if it was a major trophy that absolutely had to be won.
Some of that mood was inevitably influenced by the way transfer business was going, and Arteta wants Arsenal to be very active in the final two weeks of what has been an erratic window so far. He is still insistent on that right-sided defender and a left-sided forward, with one significant sale expected.
