Oleksandr Zinchenko could make his Arsenal debut when they take on Chelsea in a pre-season friendly in Orlando on Saturday Mikel Arteta has revealed. The Ukraine international was spotted in attendance for the Gunners' game with Orlando City on Wednesday and had his transfer to the Gunners from Manchester City confirmed on Friday.
Zinchenko, who is a childhood Arsenal fan, revealed that he is keen to get started as soon as possible at his new club. "I’m ready for another challenge," he said in his first interview with the club. "I’m not here just to waste my time and the time of Arsenal because the club is always in front of everyone.
"I am here to achieve big things and I hope we can win some titles, and I hope we are going to fight for every title in which we are going to be involved. Even from the last season, I was watching The Arsenal’s games and I could smell it’s coming, you know? The team is growing up so quickly and I think it’s time. It’s time to do our best and to achieve something big."
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And now it seems possible that he could get his opportunity with Arteta admitting that his first training session on Friday was going to be key in making the decision.
"He’s going to train, he’s allowed to train and if he feels good, maybe tomorrow he’s got some minutes," the Spaniard said. "We’ll make that decision but I reassure you that the player is going to be pushing to play some minutes."
Zinchenko has taken Arsenal up to the top of the spending leaderboard for this transfer window after the arrivals of Fabio Vieira, Matt Turner, Marquinhos and Gabriel Jesus. This is the second summer in a row where the Gunners have invested heavily in order to try and bolster the squad, although Arteta went on to reveal that this is not something that the club hope to continue doing year on year.
"If you look at how other teams have done it and where we were, there is a transition moment where that smile has to change at some stage," he said. "Look where we are investing the money, we are not spending the money, we have made big investments, but investment for the future with huge talent and a lot of performance and possibly in the future we have to do something to have a squad that can sustainably be financed by itself. That's the objective."
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