Jurrien Timber speaks solely to Sky Sports as Arsenal’s new £38m defender able to enjoying in a number of positions; observe Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest on the opening weekend of the Premier League season in Sky Sports’ stay weblog; kick-off 12.30pm

When Arsenal’s Premier League title race pale on the finish of final season, there was one fan within the Netherlands watching on in anguish. He would go on to turn out to be their new £38m defensive signing later that summer time.

“It was painful,” Jurrien Timber, the fan in query, tells Sky Sports now adorning the Arsenal badge on his chest. “You could see Manchester City getting better and better and they were so hard to beat.

“You noticed these two video games in opposition to Man City the place they misplaced these six factors. In the top, it was exhausting to come back again from that. But it was enjoyable to see and watch.”

Timber’s claims that he’s a long-serving – and maybe even long-suffering – Arsenal fan have some substance behind it.

When his transfer to north London was accomplished final month, Ajax posted a video of a younger Timber predicting that at some point he would play for the Gunners as it is a membership he is all the time preferred.

“It was just a feeling and a dream – I always wanted to play for Arsenal,” he recollects when requested about that video.

“Normally I do not speak concerning the groups I need to play for. But Arsenal was my favorite membership in order that’s the explanation I stated it.

“When the choice came this summer, it wasn’t a hard choice to make.”

Now Timber is being introduced in to assist Arsenal to make the additional step. The Dutch defender sits in Arsenal’s coaching floor with the No 12 on his shirt, the identical quantity William Saliba had final season.

The Frenchman’s introduction into the workforce helped Arsenal go from fifth to second. Could Timber be the one who helps them go from second to first?

What Timber has that Saliba would not is a league title to his identify. Two, in reality, from his time at Ajax.

The been-there-done-that expertise is not essentially a should at the present time, however whenever you have a look at how Arsenal’s younger squad fell away final season, it positively would have helped.

“It’s hard to say,” Timber says when requested concerning the abilities required to recover from the road. “The Eredivisie is totally different from the Premier League.

“In the Dutch league, we always said you will be champions if you win against the small teams. In the Premier League, you don’t really have small teams.

“You cannot drop numerous factors. To be champions, you want to be a bit fortunate however constant in no matter you do and what makes you good.”

So Timber says good fortune is required and he mentioned Arsenal being “blissful and fortunate” in Sunday’s Community Shield victory on penalties over Manchester City: a result which, on paper, is a major boost for Arsenal’s pre-season hopes. But it’s not that simple.

“It would not change a factor for us, we nonetheless have our personal objectives,” says Timber. “We need to present what we will do within the Premier League but in addition in different competitions.

“It [winning at Wembley] is a positive thing for the dressing room. Last year they [Arsenal] showed already they are a serious team, with good players and a good squad.

“They performed for the title, and I feel this 12 months the expectations are even increased as they purchased numerous gamers.”

Timber is a kind of gamers, however many didn’t foresee him turning out as an inverted left-back for his first sport.

Arsenal briefed the media that he was being signed as a right-back, whereas Timber has performed nearly his whole senior profession as a central defender. He hadn’t performed left-back – not to mention an inverted one much like Oleksandr Zinchenko’s position final season – since his Ajax reserve workforce days, which got here practically 5 years in the past.

But Arsenal followers would go on to vote Timber, on the left flank, as participant of the match after a powerful 76 minutes at Wembley.

The younger defender laughs off which is his greatest place. “I don’t want to say because I don’t want the coach to know it!” he chuckles. “I’m happy if I can play to be honest! It doesn’t matter where the coach wants to put me. I will do my best and give everything I can.”

But Sunday’s efficiency rubberstamps Timber as a perfect Arteta participant – a younger participant who that may take up a number of positions on the pitch.

It is why the Gunners supervisor made him a precedence signing, starting his summer time pitch to the defender in late May. Timber reveals Arteta confused the household ambiance – including ‘Win’ the training ground chocolate labrador – as a part of these conversations.

And the younger defender has needed to suppose shortly since becoming a member of Arteta’s set-up – and judging by Sunday’s outing at Wembley, it’s already paying off.

“It’s the way he thinks, the way he makes you better,” says Timber of his new supervisor. “I only had him for a few weeks, but I noticed it very quickly within myself because you need to learn a lot in a short space of time.

“It’s the best way he seems on the sport, so I’ve been attempting to look the identical means. He sees the larger image within the sport so that is what I’m attempting to do.

“Let’s see what it brings over a couple of months and years.”

Follow Arsenal vs Nottingham Forest on the opening weekend of the 2023/24 Premier League season by way of the Sky Sports stay weblog, kick-off 12.30pm.