While basking in the glory isn’t a bad way to spend the summer, all attention turns to the World Cup this week, with 15 Arsenal stars represented, including 3 for England with Bukayo Saka, Declan Rice, Eberechi Eze and Noni Madueke.
One issue facing Arsenal players at the tournament is the fatigue of a 63-game season and then going away to a summer tournament with little to no rest.
Jurriën Timber has already pulled out of the Netherlands squad with a groin injury, having struggled to return to fitness since March to appear in the Champions League final. Players getting eliminated early and getting a bigger rest after a long, hard campaign would be a welcome silver lining for Mikel Arteta heading into next season.
At the same time, the World Cup will be influencing the prices of some of the players that Arsenal will be looking to buy and sell throughout the summer.
The obvious area of improvement for Arsenal next season is firepower in the forward areas. The longer-term injuries to Bukayo Saka, Kai Havertz and Martin Ødegaard clearly hampered the attack, but even when they were all fit in the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain, there’s clearly improvement to be made in that area of the squad.
Morgan Rogers and Junior Kroupi are among the names that have been linked and potentially indicating that Arteta is shifting towards mavericks that can break a game wide open.
That shift was seen last season with the signing of Eze, and to a lesser extent Madueke, who deliver decisive actions within games rather than being a regular threat.
But the number of low blocks that Arsenal face is forcing Arteta to find new solutions and bringing in more ‘moments’ players, alongside no longer needing to win at all costs which likely contributed to some of the rigid play, could lead to a more exciting attack for the Gunners next season.