Arsenal (The Gunners) | Special Thread

Emery also says he is yet to confirm his quintet of captains and who will be the club captain

#AFC received the 6th most money among #PL clubs this summer. Making £55.5m from sales as of now. [via @SkySportsNews]

Arsenal exits for Shkodran Mustafi and Mohamed Elneny still possible after English transfer deadline

@JamesOlley

EMERY PRESS CONFERENCE

Good afternoon and welcome to live coverage of Unai Emery's press conference ahead of Arsenal's opening game of the Premier League season away to Newcastle United on Sunday.

The Gunners will be eager to take a better start to Emery's second season than his first, where they lost their first two games against Manchester City and Chelsea.

Arsenal enjoyed a largely impressive pre-season, beating Bayern Munich and drawing with Real Madrid in their US tour. Whilst their set of fixtures ended with defeats to Lyon and Barcelona there were plenty of encouraging signs for the Gunners, with youngsters Joe Willock and Reiss Nelson thriving whilst Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Mesut Ozil also look ready to hit the ground running.

David Luiz explains why he decided to leave Chelsea in favour of £8million move to Arsenal

Emery's squad has been significantly improved over the summer, with a club record signing of Nicolas Pepe the headline addition of six new arrivals that saw Kieran Tierney and David Luiz arrive for a combined £33million on deadline day.

Arsenal's head coach is also expected to reflect on the decision to allow Alex Iwobi to depart the club. The Gunners accepted an offer worth up to £40m from Everton for the Nigerian international on deadline day.

Continues.........

Which players are you most excited to work with?

With all! I want to say to our supporters I am very excited and enthusiasmic with Pepe, David Luiz, Ceballos, Martinelli, Kieran Tierney and with Willock, Reiss Nelson, Bukayo [Saka], with Lacazette, Aubameyang, everybody! With Leno, with Emiliano [Martinexz], with Matt [Macey].

“We need every player and I want to achieve with every player our best performance. My challenge is to achieve some titles in my present and future here and go to the Champions League.

“My first, first objective is to improve each player in his career.”

What are your aims this season?

Realistic? We are happy, we are delighted with our players and our squad. We know it will be difficult but our ambition and motivation is to do the best possible in all competitions.

“The most important competition is the Premier League, we are going to start on Sunday trying to find the regularity to be consistent in 38 matches.

“Our first objective is to be in the top four but knowing it is going to be difficult. Last year we reduced the distance. Manchester City and Liverpool are stronger than others at the beginning but we want to reduce the distance to them and compete with them.

“We can achieve more and more points against them. After Tottenham, Chelsea and Manchester United have the same objective as us. Last year we had a very small points difference between us. This is another challenge for them, for us.

“Other teams are coming back, signing very good players, working very well. Everton, West Ham, Leicester, Wolverhampton, Watford. The Premier League is the best competition in the world. We are going to work and be with a big challenge to compete for the top four in this competition.”

Emery on captaincy

At the moment we have three captains, Xhaka, Mesut and Nacho… I want to take two more with our squad.

“The three have the capacity to be captains for us.“

On Tierney and Luiz

They are coming to help us, to give us different options. Both have experience, they played at a high level.

Emery reflects on the new signings

We had progressively some players signed and let some players leave.

“I am delighted with our work, the club did well to get the best players to help us and make our squad stronger.

“We’ll start Sunday looking to see our response with the players, working only on that focus.”

We're up and running

First of all here’s what Unai Emery had to say about more business in the European market.

We are changing players at the last moment. We had with Laurent Koscielny the first captain but just five days ago he left.

“Other players were coming in, we finished our market but it is at the moment open in other countries.

“In the next 20-25 days some players will leave. It’s the reason, I want to close our squad clearly.”

Sungusunguu said:

Narudia tena iz mbwembwe zenu za usajiri nyie ndomtashangaza kwa matokeo mabovu

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Umeumia sisi kusajili kwa hiyo ulitaka tubaki hivi hivi.

Sungusunguu said:

Narudia tena iz mbwembwe zenu za usajiri nyie ndomtashangaza kwa matokeo mabovu

Click to expand...

Mkuu una roho ya kichawi si bure.

Confirmed: Arsenal will wear their ‘bruised banana’ away kit in a competitive game for the first time in Sunday’s Premier League opener against Newcastle. #afc

Unai Emery is keen to partner new signing David Luiz with Rob Holding once the latter returns from injury. [@JamesOlley] #afc

Yekeyeke Mshua said:

Iwobi kuondoka nimesikitika sana

Click to expand...

Nimefurahi sana

Speaking ahead of our opening match against Newcastle, Unai Emery admitted that the club's business in the market could still be not finished.
"Now we have the squad and we have finished the transfer market, but it's still open in other countries.
"Unfortunately, we can achieve the last moment finishing yesterday with some players but now in the next 25 days we could lose some players."
This summer we have signed 6 players for the first team, whilst losing Alex Iwobi to Everton and several youngsters.
At the moment, there are rumours regarding the sale of Shkodran Mustafi, Mesut Ozil and Mohamed Elneny.

Emery on Pepe: "I want to give him the best moment to play with us, to make his debut with us. Maybe it can be Sunday, but I am going to decide on Sunday" #Arsenal

Emery on Lacazette's availability for Newcastle:

"Lacazette trained yesterday & today but I don't know now about Sunday. Tomorrow we are going to check whether he can play or not" #Arsenal

Kesho, Nita waletea mabadiliko ya sheria mpya zitakazoanza kutumika EPL.