Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta believes that there will be plenty of new faces this summer

 

Arsenal are looking to invest heavily this summer as they look to improve from a horrible last season in the Premier League. They have already started removing some of the players who have no future left at the club. Therefore Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta is expecting a lot of fresh faces at the Emirates ahead of the upcoming season.

The Gunners are very close to sealing the £50 million deal for Brighton centre back Ben White as Arteta’s main aim was to secure up the defence. Hence he also snapped up a young fullback from Benfica, Nuno Tavares. Anderlecht centre midfielder Albert Sambi-Lokonga’s move to North London is also close to completion.

Arsenal recently drew 2-2 against the Rangers at the Ibrox Stadium in a pre-season friendly. After the match when Artea was quizzed about signing, he told the Arsenal Media, “Now a little bit of recovery.

“We trained really hard, played two games, and now we’re going to be travelling to America next week. We didn’t have any injuries which is really positive in the first week. We’re going to have some new faces arriving probably, so very positive.”

Tavares, who just joined the club, impressed on his first outing for the club. The young fullback was snapped up at  £8million and if he remains on the right track then he can turn into a sensation in no time. The two goals that Arsenal scored in the 2-2 draw was Tavares and Eddie Nketiah.

There were a lot of chances that Arsenal missed to win against the Rangers but they were a little rusty and it is understandable. But a draw looks a lot better than their 1-2 humiliation against Hibernian. Reflecting his thoughts from the game, the Spanish tactician added, “It’s been really good. We created so many chances but we are not converting enough.

“Today we should’ve scored many more goals and with the quality of the players we have up front, they have to demand much more of themselves. But at least we are getting there, the process is becoming much clearer, much better.

“Without the ball as well, we worked really hard and were really efficient. We won a lot of balls in the final third so there are a lot of positives to take.”

The biggest plus point from the match was Tavares’ goal which he scored in the first half. It proved why Arsenal were not quick to react to the transfer. The young Portuguese knows that he will be the understudy of the first choice left-back Kieran Tierney. Arsenal will now travel to the United States as they will feature in the semifinals against Inter Milan in the Florida Cup.