Seaman makes Arsenal prediction after inspecting Mikel Arteta training

David Seaman believes that his former club Arsenal aren’t ready to challenge Liverpool and Manchester City this season, despite currently sitting top of the Premier League table. The Gunners legend is nevertheless impressed by what he’s seen, having assessed manager Mikel Arteta at close quarters while coaching the club’s next generation of goalkeepers. 

The Gunners painfully missed out on Champions League qualification last term as a late collapse allowed bitter rivals Tottenham to swoop in. But a corner seems to have been turned after another summer of frivolous spending and hard work under Arteta. 

Arsenal have occupied top spot since domestic action paused for the international break, notching six wins and one defeat so far. Summer signings Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko have made a telling impact, as well as returning loan star William Saliba, who has sured up the back line. 

With some supporters tipping the north London side to challenge for the title this season, Seaman admits that he’s not letting himself get carried away and predicts that Man City and Liverpool will eventually come good. 

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Jesus has become the new main man at the Emirates this season, bagging four goals and three assists in his first seven Premier League games. Young stars such as Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli are also becoming more experienced, which bodes well for Arsenal’s future prospects of closing the gap on City and Liverpool. 

Supporters, Arteta and Seaman will all learn a lot about the side’s character next time out as Tottenham visit the Emirates on Saturday, immediately after the international break. Spurs forwards Richarlison and Heung-min Son have been scoring for fun with Brazil and South Korea respectively, which could make it another entertaining north London clash.

Alongside coaching Arsenal’s young goalkeepers, Seaman stars alongside fellow England legend Paul Gascoigne in a newly-released YouTube fishing show, produced by Fishing Republic, which can be seen here. “It was great to get Gazza out,” he said. “He loves his fishing.

“We’ve been fishing together for a long time. We’ve been on England duty, he’s fallen in lakes, we’ve chased photographers away. I just wanted people to see the side to him that I see quite a lot – a Gazza that enjoys getting out there and not acting up all the time, just being normal.”

The former Gunners stopper has also interviewed Gazza, along with the likes of Glenn Hoddle and Gary Lineker, on his podcast, Seaman Says.

“Anything in that top four, for me, is real progress for Arsenal. When you look at the squad, there’s a good mixture of experienced players. Some of the experienced players are still quite young. On that side, it’s looking really good and that’s the process Arteta had been talking about.

“I go and work at the club once a week and train with some of the young goalkeepers and I see what Arteta does in training – he’s really good. He gets Arsenal because he was a player and a captain there. The way he dealt with the Aubameyang situation was brilliant, it was the Arsenal way of treating it because it’s a massive club and no player is bigger than it. He had to leave and we’ve moved on.