LONDON — Mikel Arteta has warned Arsenal’s rivals that he plans to build the Premier League champions into the “best club in the world”.

Arteta’s side start their bid for a second successive English title against promoted Coventry in the opening game of the top-flight season tomorrow.

For the first time in 22 years, the Gunners will begin a campaign as the Premier League’s preeminent force, a status Arteta is determined to maintain as he targets an Arsenal dynasty.

With Manchester City’s golden era potentially at an end after Pep Guardiola resigned at the end of last season, the stage is set for Arsenal to enjoy their own sustained period of success.

Guardiola won six Premier League titles and Arteta, who worked under the Spaniard at City before taking charge of Arsenal in 2019, has no qualms about challenging his players to emulate that dominant run.

“It’s certainly the ambition of the club and the owners to be the best club in the world,” he told Sky Sports this week.

“In order to do that, you need the best facilities, the best stadium, the best supporters, and you need the best squad and the best players in the world.

“That’s what we try to build with the actual players that we have, and with the players that we want to sign to make the difference for Arsenal.”

Arsenal haven’t won consecutive English titles since the 1930s, a feat that proved beyond even Arsene Wenger’s “Invincibles”, who were the club’s last champions before Arteta’s men ended the drought.

Arteta is using that goal as a rallying cry for his team, with the pain of their Champions League final loss to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties last season adding further fuel to the Spaniard’s motivational fire.