Mikel Arteta challenges Arsenal as they prepare for pre-season ahead of new

Arsenal head coach Mikel Arteta has warned his players he does not want them to come back for pre-season resting on the laurels of their FA Cup success.

The first-team squad are set to return to training this weekend to prepare for the new campaign, just three weeks on from their 2-1 win over Chelsea which saw them lift a record 14th FA Cup.

It was also Arteta’s first piece of managerial silverware, less than eight months into his reign at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta wants his players to aim high ahead of their return for pre-season

The rookie boss wants his players to embrace the challenge of taking the club to more glories

As his players prepare to return to their London Colney training base ahead of the new season, Arteta wants to see the same drive and desire to add more trophies in the coming months.

‘I have to look at the players, how they come back from holidays, how they come after winning. I want to see that reaction,’ he told Arsenal Digital.

‘You know, are they going to be a little more relaxed because we’ve done something or are they going to come with, “Okay, this is nothing that we’ve done. We have to go to the next level, we have to apply ourselves better, we have to improve in a lot of areas and we have to dominate many other aspects of the game that at the moment we cannot control?”‘

‘If that is the mindset, then I am very positive that we will be sitting here in a year’s time really happy. But I hope we take that road straight away.’

Arteta watched his side end the season on a high by winning the FA Cup and his first silverware

While Arsenal ended the season with victory at Wembley, a lack of consistency in the Premier League saw them finish eighth – their worst position since 1995.

Arteta replaced Unai Emery in December after a string of poor results damaged hopes of a shot at the top-four and revealed he felt the need to implement immediate change to stop the rot setting in.

‘I could have a sense from the outside of what was happening, everything I was reading, the people I had inside the club that could feed me some information,’ he added.

‘But I think until the day that you walk through that door and start to really feel the energy and what is happening, it’s difficult to predict what the role is that you have to take in terms of the impact you want to make.

Experienced winger…