Mikel Arteta interview: Arsenal manager believes this Premier League season and title race will be most difficult yet

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believes the Premier League competition is "like nothing we've seen before" as he prepares his Gunners team for the "most difficult" title race he's seen.

The Spaniard is entering his fifth full season in north London and is looking to end Arsenal's 22-year wait for a top-flight title - after runners-up finishes in each of the last three years.

Arsenal have themselves been busy in the market with six new signings totalling £200m in transfer fees - but Liverpool and Chelsea have invested over £250m themselves, with Manchester City also boosting their talent by £150m.

"The competition in the league now is like nothing we've seen before," Arteta tells Sky Sports News' Roman Kemp as he prepares his Arsenal team for the new season.

"We all know that to win the Premier League you're going to have to be absolutely excellent, the level that is going to be required is going to be something we haven't experienced yet and we all want to win it.

"The level of the managers, the consistency of the squads that have been together now for years, the way they increased their potential in the squads, the understanding between players, quality they have brought, for sure it's going to be the most difficult."

Arsenal have lost out in three successive title races - twice to Man City and once to Liverpool last season.

But in that time, no team has picked up more Premier League points than the Gunners - with Arteta frequently saying that the only thing left for Arsenal to do is to win a trophy.

"I think you have to use it," adds Arteta about the disappointment of the last three years.

"We need more points, that's clear. We have more points than any other team in the Premier League in the last three seasons and we haven't won the Premier League. But that means we've done so many things right.

"We missed a few points in one of the seasons, and that's what we're going to try to do to be better."

'Gyokeres is very, very special'

Arsenal will be boosted by a new centre forward following the £63.5m signing of Viktor Gyokeres from Sporting CP.

The Swedish striker scored 39 league goals for the Portuguese club last season and was immediately given the iconic No 14 shirt worn by club legend Thierry Henry.

"That's the recruitment process, that's one of the things I was most interested in," says Arteta when asked about Gyokeres' choice of shirt number.

"We need to bring a player that can put that shirt on day one, walk into the dressing room and everybody says 'He's got it'. Viktor has definitely got that.

"He's got that charisma, he's got that personality and he's a really confident boy. We've seen in the first few weeks already the way he's acting, the way he behaves on the pitch. Everything is natural for him.

"When you look at his goalscoring record, we haven't had a player that has scored that many goals in the last two seasons. That killer instinct, that ability, that intuition inside the box to get the ball and put it in the back of the net is something very, very special.

"The level of threat he provides and fear in the opposition as well. That's something that's going to benefit the players around him.

"He gives us flexibility to attack in a different way, to threaten the opposition in a different way. Every time new blood comes in, something shakes and a new energy appears."

One of the first big decisions Arteta has to make this season is whether to start Gyokeres or Kai Havertz in the centre forward role in the season opener against Manchester United, live on Sky Sports' Super Sunday.

Both Havertz and Gyokeres scored in Arsenal's final pre-season game against Athletic Club - but Arteta is insistent that the pair could play alongside each other this season.

"Yes, they can play together," says Arteta. "One of the biggest qualities of Kai especially is that he can play in various positions. He's done that with us, he's done that at the highest level.

"Now we have options; on the right we have options, on the left we have options. That variety and that competition internally for places, the capacity to impact the game when we need to as well is going to be a different level of threat."

Meanwhile, Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard believes the signing of Gyokeres could create more space for the club's other attacking players on the pitch.

"It's always different and you have to adapt," says the Norwegian. "It's the same with Viktor now; he has different qualities and you have to make sure you get the best out of each and every player.

"He's a big boy and he's going to get a lot of attention and there's going to be a lot of talk about him, so maybe it leaves more space for the rest of us.

"I think we just have to use each quality of each player in the best possible way. That's how I see it."

Sky Sports to show 215 live Premier League games from this season

From this season, Sky Sports' Premier League coverage will increase from 128 matches to at least 215 games exclusively live.

And 80 per cent of all televised Premier League games this season will be on Sky Sports.