Ahead of the big kick-off, Arsenal demolished Manchester City 3-0 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium to win the Community Shield [Daniel Weir/SPP]

THE Premier League is back, and the champions have wasted little time warning their title rivals that they are “ready to do something special” in a bid to retain their crown.

Arsenal had to wait 22 years to get their hands back on the trophy. And ahead of tomorrow’s (Friday) big kick-off against Championship champions Coventry City at the Emirates, Mikel Arteta has made it clear the Gunners aren’t about to relinquish their grip without a fight.

Quizzed on the north Londoners’ willingness to win the league back-to-back, the Arsenal boss said: “You want to go through it again, the desire comes; I want to live that moment again, and I want to live other moments even bigger than them, and we know what it’s going to take.

“We know the difficulty of the task, that’s why we’ve never done it in this football club – so we know that it’s going to demand something special and we are ready for it.”

Arsenal have never retained the Premier League. In fact, you have to go back to the 1930s for the last time they successfully defended the English top-flight title.

Arteta, though, is adamant that having now enjoyed the taste of success, his players will only want more. And it certainly looked that way on Sunday when the Gunners demolished Manchester City 3-0 at Cardiff’s Principality Stadium to win the Community Shield.

Afterwards, Arteta said: “When you win something big like this, you fight so much for it, and you go through that emotion, you win it, and you want it again. That’s what we want.

“We need to push everybody every single day. We’re going to make each other better, and we have an incredible squad, so let’s go for it.

“We know what the Premier League brings and it’s a huge challenge every week, and Coventry is going to be a big one on Friday. So now we have to recover after a massive shift [on Sunday], but I really liked, again, the desire and the will that the team showed.”

Meanwhile, Arsenal are set to add even more depth to their squad in the coming days.

Yesterday (Wednesday) the Gunners agreed a £50m deal to sign Ezri Konsa from Aston Villa.

With William Saliba out for an extended period of time with a back injury, and Jurrien Timber also sidelined with a long-term groin problem, Arteta was desperate to add a new defender to his ranks.

The England international is set to have a medical in the coming 48 hours.

If, however, Konsa is not signed in time for Arsenal’s opening league game against Coventry City, the 28-year-old would be expected to make his Gunners debut in their following match – which as fate would have it, is away to Aston Villa.