Arsenal's Title Defense Challenge: Arteta Demands Hunger and Ambition

Mikel Arteta has thrown down an early-season challenge to his Arsenal players, demanding they prove they have the hunger to defend their Premier League crown – and making it clear that Myles Lewis-Skelly will not be sacrificed to fund it.

Arsenal open their title defence at home to Coventry on Friday night, stepping into a campaign they have not successfully defended since the 1930s. History leans their way: 17 wins from their last 18 league games against promoted sides, and no such visitor has left the Emirates with three points since November 2010. That’s 45 matches of dominance.

Arteta knows those numbers. He also knows they count for nothing if his squad believes its own hype.

“We need to breathe and we need to take this organically because it’s going to be a long marathon,” he said on the eve of the new season, stressing evolution over celebration after last year’s triumph and the statement Community Shield win against Manchester City. For him, the bar is not last May, not Cardiff last weekend, but whatever comes next.

“What we need to show is that desire and ambition to be better than what we were last season, a month ago, or a week ago when we played Man City. We have the ability to improve, to evolve, and that’s what I sense and I feel around the club and especially around the players.”

The question now is whether Arsenal can carry the weight of being champions. Are they the hunters or the hunted?

Asked if his side start the campaign with a target on their backs, Arteta pushed the idea away – at least for now. “Today, no, because we start from scratch and we’re going to have to prove we have the level to go back to that position again,” he said. For him, the dynamic is familiar. “I think that happened in the last three seasons – at some point we were first, at some point we were chasing it, and you never know what’s better. You give me the choice, I want to be first, I want to be hunted, and I want to be in control of our future, rather than depending on somebody else.”

Control has been the theme of Arsenal’s off-season as well, especially around Lewis-Skelly. The 19-year-old, an academy product with growing influence, has sat at the centre of quiet transfer intrigue.

It is understood the midfielder was offered to Manchester United and Chelsea earlier in the window as Arsenal explored ways to balance their books after the £75m signing of Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle. On the pitch, Lewis-Skelly has responded with authority: excellent in midfield against City in Cardiff on Sunday, and trusted enough to start last season’s Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain.

Arteta is not entertaining the idea of losing him now. He is “100%” confident Lewis-Skelly will stay at Arsenal this window.

“The players that have been raised in our system, and they feel generally that love and that connection with the club, bring something else, there’s no question about that,” Arteta said. “We need to look after them in a really special way because they bring value that is very difficult to find. That’s why, when we can, we want to protect those assets as much as possible, develop them and make them extremely important for the club.”

The message is clear. Arsenal want to go again with the title, they want to be chased, and they want to do it with their own at the heart of it. Friday night will show whether that desire runs as deep as their manager insists.