The fact is that the same thing keeps happening at Arsenal, and that is why I don’t believe in Arsenal anymore until I see what they look like if the season starts. Arsenal always look promising when the season starts; they will be doing everything as expected, and later on, Arsenal's performance will start declining, and that is the surprising thing till now.
I’m still wondering why it’s always like that, so for now, even as you are saying Arteta is a talented manager, I agree, but why is one thing still repeating itself? So let’s see how Arsenal do this coming season, and I won’t say they are better in the early stage of the season till the season gets tough and more serious. That is when I will believe Arteta has fixed the errors in the squad.
While second place became a meme of sorts for them, it is true that they are doing a better job this season without a doubt because they are making good transfers. I am assuming Gyokeres deal is done, everything I read so far says that it is not official yet but it's about to be, and if we consider that, and if he does well, then Arsenal will do a fine job this season.
If we can see them score more, then their defense shouldn't be an issue, Saliba is great and he will make sure that all of the defenders are doing their job great, he is a leader on defense and can make the team so much better. I have seen them play so far not that bad, last season wasn't bad neither, and adding more to that should make them possible to win the whole thing.