Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes new signings Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko will provide a winning mentality previously missing from his squad.
Arteta spent around £75million to land Brazilian forward Jesus and Ukrainian full-back Zinchenko from champions Manchester City this summer.
The Spaniard is set to hand both players their Premier League debuts in the opener at Crystal Palace on Friday evening.
“Those players have been inspired by top players, top professionals, ruthless winners for many years,” said Arteta.
“They were looking at them, and now it’s their turn to do the same and inspire those younger players that we have in our squad to do the same and to show them what it takes to win, and the level of detail, hunger and dedication that you need to keep winning.”
Jesus is already revelling in the central striker’s role, with the 25-year-old scoring seven goals during pre-season.
“The role that Gabi has here is going to be very different to the role that Gabi had in his previous club,” Arteta added.
“That needs some adaptation and time and we are all surprised with how quickly he’s done it, but we have to share that responsibility.
“He’s a tremendous talent with a mentality that is so contagious and he’s going to give us a lot, but it’s a team at the end of the day.”
Patrick Vieira, meanwhile, admitted Arteta’s new additions will present a “completely different” challenge from the squad Palace beat 3-0 in the Gunners’ trip to Selhurst Park last season.
“I think they’re in a better place than last year,” said the Eagles boss of his former club.
“The new players they have brought in, they are much stronger. They have the squad to challenge and be closer to the title.”
Vieira admitted he’s “short on numbers”, with Michael Olise, James Tomkins and James McArthur on the Eagles’ injured list.
While depth could present a challenge, Vieira brushed aside concerns that Palace’s pre-season tour to Singapore and Australia, which saw his squad split across continents to begin their pre-season, will have any affect on their readiness for Friday’s contest.
He added: “We are not going to use that for an excuse. We have a couple of days and couple of weeks together, we had the game against Montpellier, which I believe in the first half was a good team performance.
“We worked in that week about what we needed to improve. There is no doubt about how fit we will be physically and mentally how we will be ready to compete.”
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments