Mikel Arteta is less than a week away from the beginning of his first full season as the manager of Arsenal, and he is faced with the aim of ending their long wait for a return to playing amongst Europe's elite in the UEFA Champions League.
Thanks to captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's goalscoring heroics against Chelsea leading to Arsenal lifting the prestigious FA Cup trophy for a record 14th time, Arsenal will be playing in the Europa League yet again next season, which provides Arteta with another route back into the Champions League.
The young Spanish manager will be hoping his star striker finally puts an end to the persistent speculation around his future and signs a new deal at the gunners, before continuing on his goalscoring form from last season into this season.
Arsenal relied heavily on the goalscoring exploits of Aubameyang last season, and it is likely that if Arsenal are to get top 4 next season it will be due to the work of the Gabonese striker.
Despite Aubameyang's impressive 22 goals scored last season, the gunners had a real creativity deficit which was apparent in games such as the 1-0 loss to Aston Villa when they only mustered 6 shots and none on target.
Mikel Arteta will desperately need to sort out his team's creativity problem next season if he wishes to compete with the likes of Manchester Utd and Chelsea for those champions league places, the signing of Willian on a free from Chelsea should hugely help with this.
The Brazilian winger was 7th in the chances created charts from last season whilst Arsenal had no players anywhere near the top 10.
As a team, Arsenal ranked in 16th for chances created in open play last season, an abysmal stat for a team with aspirations like Arsenal.
I also believe that next season could be a huge season for the record signing Nico Pepe, who started to show his worth with some excellent performances towards the tail end of the season and after a difficult first season will be keen to be even more influential in the attack.
There have been many rumours linking Arsenal with the creative midfielder Houssem Aouar from Lyon and if they managed to raise the finances, the Frenchman would be a huge boost to the team.
Another area that will need to be improved on by Arsenal next season is the defence, an issue that has caused distress to their fans for years.
Mikel Arteta has hugely improved the stability of their defence since he took over from Unai Emery in December and going into the season will be boosted by two of the French league's top performing defenders from last season, 19-year-old William Saliba who has been on loan at Saint Etienne and Gabriel Maghalaes, 22 who recently joined from Lille.
The two young centre-backs have the potential to build a strong partnership at the centre of Arsenal's defence for years to come, albeit they will need time to adapt and Arsenal fans may need to be patient but hopes are high.
It remains to be seen who will be Arsenal's no.1 in the league next season but the forms of both Bernd Leno and Emiliano Martinez last season will provide another boost to Arsenal's defence.
The potential signing of Thomas Partey from Athletico Madrid would add some real steel to the sometimes flimsy midfield of Arsenal and could provide what they need to concede less goals and rise up the table.
I believe Arsenal are a midfield signing or two away from mounting an extremely strong push for top 4 next season.
In his short time in charge Arteta has shown Arsenal can compete with the best with wins against the likes of Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool all within a month.
Wins against the top 6 have been hard to come by for Arsenal in recent years but Mikel Arteta already has surpassed Emery's total from his time in the Emirates dugout.
Arteta has given his players belief and if they continue to buy into his ideas then they could surprise a few people next year, and I believe they will do just that and finish in those much fought over Champions League places.
Arsenal begin their season with a trip to Fulham at 12:30 on Saturday 12 September live on BT sport.
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