I want us to fight for the title

What ambitions does Arsenal have for the new season?
We’re looking to stay in the top part of the table and find ourselves in a Group which will have the chance to fight for the title. It’s going to be a long and complicated process but I believe in us. I’m expecting teams to be on their top game this year. The Manchester clubs as well as Liverpool have a lot of new signings. Chelsea will be defending their title after having retained their entire team apart from Filip Luis and myself and finding suitable replacements, too. They continue to be this year’s top seed. Tottenham will also do their best to get into the top 4 and so I’m anticipated a very equalised year.

It’s going to be a very different season this year. You’ve changed your jersey after eleven long years.
It’s a new beginning for me. I’m really motivated and have a lot of expectations. I hope we have a strong start to the season and follow up on it, too. Preparation games went great and we beat this year’s Premier League favourite in the Supercup, which put us just into the right mindset for the upcoming season.

You are Arsenal’s biggest signing of this summer and there is a lot of expectations in the air. Are you prepared?
I guess I should be on of the team leaders. I’m excited for that. I hope to live up to all the expectations, as well. I did my very best during the prep phase in order to convince the manager to put me in the main line-up. Now it’s all up to me.

At Arsenal you joined a fellow Czech and national team player Tomáš Rosický.
It’s nice to have a Czech person in the team once again, especially since I’ve played by his side in representation games for years. We just missed each other at Sparta Prague back then and now here we are. I really hope we win something together.

Some other Czech players will also feature in the Premier League this year. How would you assess their chances and ambitions?
We’ll see what Watford’s new manager has in mind for the Czech guys there. I hope that both Matěj Vydra and Dan Pudil get to play a bit, that’d be great for the representation team. Libor Kozák is finally fit and we’ll see how he does after his injuries. He scored a couple goals for Aston Villa in the preparation phase and after Benteke’s left, he should get to play more