David Luiz has expressed his belief that Arsenal can win the Premier League this season, insisting that the “club deserves to shine again”.
As per The Independent, Luiz completed a surprise £8 million transfer from Chelsea to Arsenal on August 8 and has since emerged as a key member of Unai Emery’s squad.
The Brazilian has scored once in seven Premier League outings, helping the Gunners rise to third in the table, just a point behind reigning champions Manchester City.
Arsenal are, however, still nine points behind leaders Liverpool, who have stormed clear after winning all eight of their fixtures at the start of the 2019-20 campaign.
Emery’s side were beaten 3-1 at Anfield towards the end of August and draws against Tottenham, Watford and Manchester United have also shown up their familiar vulnerabilities in defence.
Despite a mixed start to the season, Luiz claims Arsenal “can fight for the title”, with a tough trip to Sheffield United up next on Monday night.
“For me, if you start something, and we’ve just started the Premier League and all of the competitions, if you don’t think you can win the competition then you won’t start anything in your life,” the 32-year-old told NBC Sports.
“I want to win titles with Arsenal. I want to improve and adapt myself for the style of Arsenal, as a club and how the manager wants us to play. I think we can do that together.
“My vision, my ambition and my will is always to fight for the title and between the club, the players and the coach, we have the possibility to fight for the title. I think this club deserves to shine again.”
Arsenal have already conceded 11 goals this term, with Luiz’s presence so far failing to shore up a defence which has been criticised by fans and experts consistently in recent years.
However, the Brazil international is confident in Emery’s vision for the team, with it his desire to keep improving as he enters the latter stages of his career.
“We talk about this with every single club, Arsenal is no different,” Luiz added.
“I think Unai is working very well with the plan to defend and then the plan to attack. I always say, defending starts with the strikers and through the whole team, and you can see with modern football that the goalkeeper is now like a No 6.
“We are going to try and improve, we are already doing well and the last few games have shown that we are stronger in a defensive way. I want this club to improve in every part of the game.
“I think we’ve started really well and we just lost one game in the Premier League. I think the team is improving and now we are in third in the table but we want to finish this season fighting for the title.”
