David Luiz says he is “not going to stop” until Arsenal are successful once more, with the Brazilian of the opinion that trophies can be collected this season and that Mikel Arteta will take the club back to the top.
A move to Emirates Stadium was made by a colourful South American defender in the summer of 2019 with the intention of helping to get the Gunners back in the groove.
Having tasted domestic and European success with Chelsea, Luiz was convinced that potential could be unlocked in north London on the back of a productive summer in the transfer market.
Arsenal have regressed, rather than moving forward, with Unai Emery paying the price for that with his job.
Luiz, though, believes that something can still be salvaged from the 2019-20 campaign and building blocks put in place for future success.
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He told the Gunners’ official website: “I still have the hunger to win trophies. I want to win trophies with Arsenal. I want to make this club shine again. This is my goal and I'm not going to stop until I'm doing that. It's up to me to continue to have this hunger every single day.
“For me, the first thing behind a title-winning team is belief. If you don't believe and you don't dream, or believe in that dream, it's impossible to do it.
“The first thing is you have to dream and then after that you have to study how to do it. Then you need to understand that during this process, you're going to have some good moments and some difficult moments, but you can never change your mind.
“That’s why I think we can achieve titles this season. We have the opportunity in the Europa League and the FA Cup, and then we want to fight until the end for the top four. We want to start to create an identity for this club. Everybody's going to understand that it's going to be hard to play against us.
“After all, if you don't believe, you will never achieve anything in your life.”
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Former club captain Arteta has been brought back to familiar surroundings in December 2019 and finds himself charged with the task of waking a sleeping giant from its slumber.
Luiz is convinced that the Spaniard is the best man for the job, saying: “Working with Mikel has been great since the first day. He's always working straight to the point and he has already shown us his ideas, his goals. He wants to try to bring the shine back to this club with a winning mentality and by working hard every single day.
“He's trying to do everything as well as possible to achieve that. For me, personally, I'm enjoying it a lot. I came from clubs that would always fight for titles and would always fight to win, and Mikel knows that as well. He had an opportunity to go to amazing places and different clubs, and he worked a lot as an assistant coach for Pep Guardiola. He learned in the best way, so I think for sure he will be one of the best soon.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s his first job as a coach or not. He knows football, he knows inside the pitch. He prepared himself outside the pitch and he’s ready for that.
“I’ve had the opportunity to work with many, many coaches already in my career and I think he’s more than prepared to do the job. The enthusiasm comes naturally when you love something. He loves football, he loves to work, so this enthusiasm is contagious for everybody.
“What Mikel is trying to build is something big and I really believe in his philosophy, I really believe we can do something big this year and in the future, so I’m really, really happy because we have our way to go.”
Arsenal find themselves 10th in the Premier League table, 10 points adrift of the top four, but there is still time to make a late surge up the standings while also chasing down tangible success in knockout competitions.