Arsenal 2026-27 season preview: Mikel Arteta’s Gunners will run away with the Premier League but fall short in Europe once again

Arteta has never done himself any favours with the way he talks to the press – or his players. The metaphors and motivational methods he’s employed have often been incredibly cringeworthy. The Spaniard’s shockingly cynical, safety-first style of play also played a massive part in him alienating the purists.

However, none of that really matters anymore. After being labelled a serial loser (despite winning the FA Cup back in 2020), Arteta is now a Premier League title winner, and success is all that matters to the majority of people in the modern era.

There is, however, a chance that the former midfielder will allow his team to play with greater freedom this year now that they’ve finally got the monkey off their back. To be honest, we don’t fully subscribe to that theory – from a tactical perspective, Arteta is clearly more Jose Mourinho than Pep Guardiola.

However, the mere fact that Arsenal were in for Vinicius suggests that the Arsenal boss is aware that his team lacks star quality in attack and cannot continue relying quite so heavily on set-pieces to score goals.

So, we could see a slightly more offensive and expansive brand of football at the Emirates this season. As Arteta said in his usual David Brent-like lexicon, he doesn’t want his team to be considered defending champions this season, but “attacking champions”…