Arteta confirms 'new faces' at Arsenal amid White & Lokonga reports

Chris Myson
  • Updated: 18 Jul 2021 09:55 BST
  • 4 min read
Mikel Arteta expects the size of his squad to increase
© ProShots - Mikel Arteta expects the size of his squad to increase

Mikel Arteta has all but confirmed "new faces" will have signed for Arsenal before their trip to Florida.

Arsenal will play Inter in the United States next Sunday after they drew 2-2 with Rangers in their latest pre-season friendly.

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One of their new signings, Nuno Tavares, scored his first goal for the Gunners in Scotland.

Arteta was encouraged by that workout, especially having lost their first friendly match to Hibs.

And he also confirmed new arrivals were set to join the former Benfica left-back.

England defender Ben White is said to be on the brink of joining in a £50 million move from Brighton.

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Arsenal are also reportedly hopeful they will complete the signing of Anderlecht midfielder Albert Sambi Lokonga, worth around £18m, in time for him to take part in the trip.

"We're going to have some new faces arriving probably, so very positive," he said to the Arsenal website about the upcoming trip.

"Now a little bit of recovery. We trained really hard, played two games, and now we're going to be travelling to America in the next week.

"We didn't have any injuries which is really positive in the first week.

"I think it [the trip] was perfect, even the [good] weather was something that we didn't expect. It was a really positive camp."

Arteta wants more from Arsenal strikers

Arteta saw plenty of positives from his matches in Scotland despite Arsenal not registering a victory.

But he urged his strikers to start taking opportunities when they arrive.

With the quality of the players we have up front, they have to demand much more of themselves
- Arteta on Arsenal strikers

He added: "Overall I'm really pleased with the performance. I think we dominated the game, we created so many chances - I counted about eight or 10 clear chances to score - but this game is decided in both boxes.

"We weren't clinical in the opponent's box and we conceded two goals from two corners, which were the only chances they had apart from the counter-attack from our own corner.

"It's much better from the other day and you tell that physically we were already better in the second game, the organisation was better, individually they played better, but I really liked the collective understanding of the game.

"We executed a lot of things we've been working on in the training pitch.

"We should've scored many more goals and with the quality of the players we have up front, they have to demand much more of themselves."

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