Photo: Ronnie Macdonald / CC BY 2.0 / Wikimedia Commons
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said the club expects transfer movement in the coming weeks following a 4-1 pre-season victory over Girona on Saturday. The result gave Arteta an early look at several players ahead of the new season.
"We are really active trying to improve and evolve the team; that's clear. We expect to have movements in the next few weeks, obviously," Arteta told reporters after the match. "We won't sit still and we are very ambitious with what we are doing."
Arteta singled out summer signing Christos Tzolis for praise, drawing a comparison to an existing squad member. "He has a lot of similarities with Leo in a lot of the things that he can do and the spaces he can occupy," the manager said. "I think you're going to love the player."
Young midfielder Max Dowman also caught Arteta's attention. "That's what we want when you play for Arsenal. Expectations should be high," Arteta said. "I think today he had a really good game."
On Ethan Nwaneri, who spent time at Marseille, Arteta acknowledged a difficult loan spell but backed the experience to benefit the midfielder long-term. "When you just stand in front of him, you sense the maturity and he looks like a different man," he said.
Arteta framed the need for further recruitment around competitive margins. "Because the margins are very small. We need to increase the competition internally. We need to make sure we identify the things that we don't have in the team," he said.
Arsenal enter the new season as champions and Arteta said that status brings added pressure rather than comfort. "We have even more responsibility and more ambition than before. We need to prove that we belong at this level," he added.