The Gunners captain believes there has been a
"transformation" at the north London club & says team spirit is
better than ever as they target a Premier League title challenge
EXCLUSIVE By Greg Stobart 
Arsenal captain Mikel Arteta has hailed the “transformation” of the club in recent years and claims they now sign the best players in the world rather than sell their star men.
Arteta joined Arsenal in 2011 during a period in which they sold several key players including Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie and Samir Nasri and failed to win a trophy between 2005 and 2014.
But Arsenal have won the FA Cup in the last two seasons while bringing high-profile signings such as Mesut Ozil, Alexis Sanchez and Petr Cech to north London.
Arteta is delighted with Cech’s recent arrival from Chelsea and says the goalkeeper’s transfer highlights the change in Arsenal’s ambition.
“Five or six years ago we were selling our best players,” Arteta told Goal. “Now, we are keeping our best players and bringing some of the best players in the world to this club. It’s a big transformation.
“Petr Cech is another sign of how ambitious we are and what we want to achieve. We had two really good goalkeepers and we still went to the market and bought probably one of the top three in the world.
“I think he’s going to be another good addition. He’s got a big history and he has shown a lot of character.
“It’s a difficult decision to move from Chelsea, being a legend there, to come to Arsenal. He still wanted to come here and repeat here what he did over there. I think that’s a good lesson for all the players here.”
Arteta signed a one-year contract extension to stay at the club next season and believes Arsene Wenger’s side are on the verge of a title challenge.
“The energy here is very good, it’s positive,” he added. “We can sense that something has changed in the last few seasons, so we are looking forward to getting ready and to start performing again.
“I think we have improved in every department in the club. The squad has improved, the confidence around the team and the connection with the supporters is very good at the moment.
“We need to use all of those elements to keep moving forwards and aim for bigger trophies. That’s what we’re looking for now.
“It took a while for this club to change, but I think we are moving in the right direction now.”
Arteta replaced Thomas Vermaelen as Arsenal’s club captain last summer but was restricted to just seven Premier League appearances as his season was ruined by injury problems.
The Spaniard hopes to lift the Premier League trophy at the end of the coming season and believes the team spirit within the squad is better than ever.
“When you’re captain, you have to make some decisions that some people don’t like and you have to go through difficult moments and difficult meetings,” Arteta said.
“But you also want to be part of it when the good things come up. It’s about both things.
“We have an extraordinary group now and I’m more than happy to keep leading this team and this group of players.
“It’s not just up to me, we have so many senior players and I want to get the young players involved too. We need to start stepping it up.
“The spirit is good, there’s banter between the French, the Spanish, the English... any nationality. The main thing is that you have good characters and good personalities.
“They’ve shown how good they are in the difficult moments. That’s when you see people’s reactions and whether they want to kill each other or help each other.
“This group has always shown the right attitude in the difficult moments.
“Since I came here, from the first day to what we have now, there is a big difference. It takes a while and you need everybody on the same route.
“You have some ups and downs but it’s part of the development.”
Mikel Arteta was speaking ahead of the launch of Arsenal's new PUMA away kit, which is available to buy now at PUMA.com/Arsenal and ArsenalDirect.com.
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