Arsenal season preview, pick, predictions: Gunners reload and set sights on Premier League glory

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If there is a blueprint for how to follow a near-miss season, Arsenal followed it to the millimeter. Assertive in the transfer window and creative in their structuring of the squad, Mikel Arteta's side seem primed to take the next step forward in 2023-24. Whether that is enough to take them close to the best team in the world is unknowable for the time being but you could not accuse this club of resting on their laurels.

Already Arsenal have emerged victorious from a few minor skirmishes with Manchester City, winning the Community Shield after a combative, technical display at Wembley in which they looked a match for the treble winners. Of more long-term significance might be the £105 million acquisition of Declan Rice, secured despite a late play by Pep Guardiola. That the England international found the lure of building something in north London to be more persuasive than the guarantee of major honors at the Etihad Stadium says everything about the salesmanship of Arteta.

A team that have spent a decade scrabbling in the discard bins at Real Madrid and Barcelona are now going toe to toe with Europe's most prestigious names and getting the players they want. Bayern Munich in particular must be sick of hearing Arsenal's name after a summer where Rice, Kai Havertz, Jurrien Timber and David Raya have all found themselves entranced by the project at the Emirates Stadium.

That quartet of additions should do wonders for the depth of Arteta's talent pool. For all the talk that the Gunners bottled their title push last season, what ultimately cost them were injuries in key positions. When William Saliba went out, a defense that had already been wobbling went on a run of two clean sheets in their final 11 league games, and the fitness issues that plagued Oleksandr Zinchenko and Thomas Partey in the spring months saw Arsenal lose the control they had exerted on games.

As Arteta himself noted while the Premier League trophy was spinning out of his grasp, "At the level that we want [we don't have the depth]. We didn't have the capacity to do that as well with the Europa League so it's part of that evolution."

That argument wouldn't ring true now. Indeed both Zinchenko and Partey might start the season fighting for their spot in the XI, such were the impressive performances of Timber, Rice and Havertz in the Community Shield. The same will be true of Aaron Ramsdale with Raya.

Arteta has options across the pitch. Build-up from the back could come from Zinchenko inverting from left back, Ben White bombing down the right, Timber inverting off either flank or almost any of his defenders stepping up from center back. On the toughest away trips, a midfield of Partey and Rice would provide ballast in abundance but if more guile is required then why not deploy Jorginho, Havertz and Martin Odegaard? When Gabriel Jesus returned from the World Cup with an injury, Arsenal's options numbered one: grit their teeth and trust in Eddie Nketiah. Now England under-21s record goalscorer is vying with Havertz and Leandro Trossard, all of whom can offer different qualities as the focal point of Arsenal's attack.

A core of a little over a dozen players looked like they might win Arsenal the league last season, playing one way but playing it as well as anyone in Europe. Now Arteta can beat his opponents in all sorts of fashions.

"It's not A, B or C. It's A1, A2, A3 — depending on how you want to look at it," he said in preseason. "We are looking at options — we are training different options — but also, sometimes, you have to leave players on the training ground to see because sometimes when they train with each other they give you a lot of information."

Aside from the odd bit of honing on the fringes -- some backup for Bukayo Saka on the right flank wouldn't go amiss -- Arsenal are as well placed to build on last season as they could possibly have wished. It might all have been in vain; if City sustain the heights they hit in the spring then there is no shame to be found in second places. But should the best team in the world wobble, Arteta has everything he needs to pounce.

Arsenal predictions

	James Benge	Jonathan Johnson	Roger Gonzalez	Chuck Booth	Pardeep Cattry	Francesco Porzio	Mike Goodman
League finish	2nd	1st	3rd	2nd	3rd	3rd	3rd
Player of the Season	William Saliba	Declan Rice	Bukayo Saka	Bukayo Saka	Bukayo Saka	Bukayo Saka	Martin Odegaard
Top scorer	Gabriel Jesus, 22 goals	Gabriel Jesus, 20 goals	Bukayo Saka, 14 goals	Bukayo Saka, 18 goals	Gabriel Jesus, 17 goals	Gabriel Jesus, 17 goals	Gabriel Martinelli, 15 goals