On the eve of the new Premier League season, Mikel Arteta has revealed that he is sharing the same excitement as the majority of football fans across the country, no matter who they support.
All eyes will be on Selhurst Park tomorrow when we get the honour of kicking off the new campaign against the Eagles, and the boss admitted he’s just as buzzing as our supporters to get back to the thrust of Premier League action.
Speaking in his first official press conference of the season, he said: “It’s great that people are excited. But there is a big excitement across the Premier League because a lot of clubs have done a lot of business, getting stronger and stronger. The competition is really big; we focus on what we can do, what we want to do and we want to be at the top of the table.
“You try every day to be more excited and love your players more and feel more privileged of where you are. The more things you do that are related to the way you feel, and you share that feeling with the club like we do, then it becomes a common thing.
“At the end it’s not about me, it’s about how we all feel about what we are doing. We all feel an integral part of it, especially our supporters, when we do that. I always say it becomes very, very powerful.”
A promising summer has yielded five new recruits and six goal-filled wins against a mixture of opposition in various locations, and while Arteta is satisfied with the feel-good factor around the club, he is under no illusions that Patrick Vieira’s Palace will pose a very different prospect on Friday night.
Reflecting on the past couple of months, he said: “I think we are all enthusiastic. We had the pre-season that we wanted, it was well-organised, we had good results, good performances and good preparation, but now the ball starts to roll tomorrow evening in a completely different context against a Premier League team and we know what to expect there.
“But it’s true, we are with a level of energy and ambition to have a successful season and we have to show that on the pitch tomorrow night.”
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