Stephan Lichtsteiner hopes to bring Juventus' winning mentality to Arsenal

New signing | Lichtsteiner is the first arrival of the Emery era
Arsenal FC via Getty Images
James Benge5 June 2018

Arsenal’s new signing Stephan Lichtsteiner has vowed to bring the title-winning mentality he developed at Juventus to the Emirates after becoming the first arrival of the Unai Emery era.

Lichtsteiner completed his free move on Wednesday, arriving as a free agent from Juventus.

Standard Sport understands that a key motive in their pursuit of Lichtsteiner was a desire to bring veteran experience to the defence and a winning-mentality to the dressing room, a factor which similarly explains their pursuit of Borussia Dortmund centre-back Sokratis Papastathopoulos.

Lichtsteiner joined Juventus in the summer of 2011 following a season where the giants of Italian football had finished seventh and were in danger of stagnating. In every one of his campaigns at the club he won the Scudetto, featuring in at least 26 league games across those seasons.

“I hope I can bring a lot of that [title-winning] mentality,” Lichtsteiner said. “It’s a little bit of the same project that I did seven years ago with Juventus. Juventus also, for two times, didn’t qualify for the Champions League.

“I hope I can bring a lot of experience, a lot of mentality and together, with my team, come back to the highest level of the Champions League.

“At the end it’s not too important to speak too much. The important thing is what you do on the pitch, that you are an example for the young players, for the old players, that everybody knows that this guy will help us.

“Like me also, I need to know that everybody helps me. This is the team spirit that we need to have, to have the confidence to give each other to help us.”

In addition to his dressing room presence, Lichtsteiner will provide cover for first-choice right-back Hector Bellerin, who played more minutes than any Arsenal player last season.

Emery will also look for the additions of Lichtsteiner and Papastathopoulos to bring solidity to a defence that conceded 51 goals in the Premier League last season, 13 more than any other side in the top six.

Lichtsteiner said: “I’m a right back who likes to attack but I also know when it’s time to attack and when you need to stay behind. I have to put a balance between defence and attack.”

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