Good morning and a happy weekend from Berlin! Andrew is still on his whiplash tour of Ireland with Elliot, so I’m on blog duty this morning while they recover from whatever it is they need to recover from in Galway. I wish someone had covered for me when I was last in Galway, but no. After four days of stag do, I had to get up at 6am to catch the only train back to Dublin that would have me reach my flight home before getting married the next day. You have no idea how close I was to missing it. In a way, I guess that whole experience really prepared me (and my heart) for last season. Speaking of last season: we are still the champions of England. I woke up this morning not entirely sure what to write about, so let’s start there. The basking in the warmth of the Premier League trophy has largely died down now that the transfer window is in full swing, so as I sit here drinking my tea out of my “Champions 25/26” mug, it’s worth remembering: we are still the champions of England. And this season, we get to defend our title. It would be great to defend the title with some big new additions, especially in the frontline, and like many, I’ve spend the last couple of days wondering what that could look like now that Vinicius Junior will be staying at Real Madrid. We clearly have the money if a big deal can be struck, but the pool of players that would elevate a team like ours is small. Berta and co. have two weeks until the season begins and a little over three until the window closes to figure something out. Rather than panic and run through some alternatives for the left wing, maybe it’s better to pause, breathe, and remember the position we do find ourselves in. We are the champions. The pressure of ending the long wait to say that will be lifted from the players and the manager this season. We’re set to add Bruno Guimaraes, the captain, talisman, and best player at a club that has twice finished in the Champions League places in the last four seasons. Replacing Christian Norgaard with him is a huge upgrade in terms of both quality and depth in midfield. Leandro Trossard has also been sold (for a good fee) and replaced by a bit of an unknown quantity at this level, a younger player who racked up the goals and assists in weaker leagues over the last few seasons. It’ll be exciting to see how Christos Tzolis performs. It’ll be year two at Arsenal for Eberechi Eze and Viktor Gyokeres, and it’ll hopefully be a proper start to the campaign for Kai Havertz, who missed the first half of last season through injury. Max Dowman looks ready for some more opportunities. It would only take one or two of them offering a little bit more than last season for our attack to take a step forward. And then you look around at the opposition. Manchester City have a new manager, have lost Bernardo Silva, and are having to reject bids for Rodri, who, by all accounts, has his heart set on leaving. Liverpool also have a new manager, are still light at the back, in central midfield, and on the flanks, and are stepping into their post-Mo Salah era. Chelsea have a new manager too. They’re probably the biggest unknown quantity for me, adding experience to a talented young team and enjoying the benefit of no European football in Xabi Alonso’s first season. But they lost as many games as they won last season: the gap is huge. Manchester United only played 40 games in 2025-26: as many as Arsenal had played by the middle of February. Let’s see how they cope with the fixture congestion early on in the season and then the impact those extra games have on your legs when it comes to March, April, May. I don’t think we need to talk about Newcastle, nor Aston Villa without Morgan Rogers (sold) or Amadou Onana (ACL). Tottenham are Tottenham. None of this is to be complacent. Things can change quickly: City were in great shape two years ago until Rodri ruptured his ACL, Liverpool probably didn’t think that losing Alexander-Arnold would coincide with Salah suddenly ageing 15 years. We shouldn’t overlook the fact that William Saliba is going to be out for a while and that that is a huge blow. As far as I’m concerned, you’ll always concede more goals without him than with him, no matter who takes his place. That’ll mean needing to score more goals at the other end to make up for it. That’ll have to come from a combination of new players, players stepping up, and perhaps tweaking the way we approach games. Yes, there’s a lot of work to be done. But the point remains: everyone else has even more on their plate, and I wouldn’t swap where we are right now with any of them. As for the rest of this weekend: Arsenal are back in north London and back at Emirates Stadium tomorrow for the first time since winning the title. They’re taking on Borussia Dortmund and I wonder if those in attendance might have the privilege of seeing Bruno Guimaraes on the pitch one way or another. Maybe it’ll just be in the form of a presentation, but hopefully there’s a chance for him to get some minutes under his belt should his arrival be announced before then. Have a great weekend! The post Champions with work to do, but rivals must do even more appeared first on Arseblog ... an Arsenal blog.