Eze: Arsenal are free of “fear” and “anxiety”

Eberechi Eze says Arsenal head into the new season with a “quiet confidence” born of finally getting over the line, insisting the fear and anxiety that accompanied previous title challenges has disappeared.

For three years, the Gunners found themselves chasing the Premier League, wondering whether they had what it took to finish the job. Last season they answered that question, ending a 22-year wait for the title and changing the mood around the club in the process.

Now the conversation has moved on. Inside the corridors of power at Emirates Stadium, the ambition is sustained success, beginning with the club’s first title defence since 1935.

“The goal is to win it again,” Eze told Men in Blazers.

“That’s it, that’s the mentality. Once you’ve done it before and you’ve achieved it, not to overthink, not to get complacent, not to rest on what’s already happened, but to have the drive.

“I think that’s what helps when you have players of this calibre and you bring in more players and you increase the level of the team and the staff and everyone around.

“What you do is you create more energy in order to achieve what you want to achieve. So, yeah, massively confident of what this season can bring and what we can do.”

Eze believes the biggest difference is psychological. Arsenal no longer have to wonder whether they’re capable of winning the league because they’ve already done it.

“It’s definitely a different perspective and a different feeling. I think it’s a silent confidence in what you’ve done.

“That’s behind you and you know it. OK, cool, I’ve achieved it, I’ve done it before and it’s just more of the same and slight tweaks here, ways to improve. But there’s not the fear of or the anxiety of are we ever going to do it.

“It’s already been done. So now it’s just building, building on what we’ve already done, what we’ve already achieved and that’s given us definitely more confidence and more belief in what we’ve got here.”

While Eze is drawing confidence from last season, Viktor Gyokeres is taking a more pragmatic approach. The medals have been packed away, the parade is a distant memory and, as far as the striker is concerned, everybody starts from scratch.

“Everyone starts on zero points, so I think it doesn’t matter what you’ve done last season or the season before that or whatever it is,” he told talkSPORT.

“It’s a new season, it’s the same for everyone, everyone’s going to play the same amount of games. We have to do it all over again, so we don’t have to defend it, we just have to win as many games as we can and then hopefully we’ll be there in the end again.”

Having finally scratched the Premier League itch, it was put to Gyokeres that the Champions League might now become Arsenal’s priority after last season’s heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat in Budapest.

The Swede wasn’t entertaining that idea.

“As a team, we don’t have any priorities in terms of those things. Of course, there are a lot of competitions that you’re going to compete in and when we play in one of them, which is only possible to play in one at the time, we’re going to go for that one.

“That’s the main target every time. Depending on which competition we’re playing, we’re going to try to win that.”

It all starts again tomorrow. Strap in.

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