Striker Olivier Giroud has warned the rest of the Barclays Premier League that Arsenal can only get stronger over the course of the season.

The FA Cup winners dismantled defending champions Manchester City 3-0 to win the Community Shield at Wembley on Sunday.

However, City boss Manuel Pellegrini selected something of a makeshift side, with Willy Caballero starting ahead of England’s Joe Hart, several other regulars missing after World Cup duty and summer signings Bacary Sagna and Frank Lampard, brought in on loan from New York City FC, watching on from the stands.

Of course, much sterner challenges will lie ahead for the Gunners, but Giroud – who cracked home a sublime third goal from 25 yards in the second half – believes the additions of £30million Chile forward Alexis Sanchez, France international Mathieu Debuchy and promising young defender Calum Chambers, as well as Colombia goalkeeper David Ospina, can stand them in good stead to finally last the distance over the next nine months.

World Cup winners Lukas Podolski, Per Mertesacker and Mesut Ozil have all now returned to Arsenal’s Hertfordshire base ahead of the opening Premier League match at home to Crystal Palace, after which Arsenal travel to Istanbul for the first leg of what is a crunch Champions league play-off against Besiktas.

“When our Germans join us, we will be stronger for sure and hopefully until May,” said Giroud, whose fine strike helped the substitute collect the sponsors’ man of the match award.

“That (the championship) is the target. Last year we did well until March. We had a bad run after, but we really wanted to come back and be stronger than last year,”

Giroud, 27, believes the arrival of Sanchez from Barcelona will add another attacking dimension to the Gunners’ already formidable frontline.

“Like Mesut when he signed for Arsenal, it is always easy to play with these kind of players,” said Giroud.

“I think he will maybe need some more games to adapt his game to the Premier League, but that is normal.

“He is a fantastic player, so I think he will [have] a great season.

“He has different qualities to me, Yaya Sanogo and Joel Campbell. He can bring his pace and his technique in the centre of the park and he is a great finisher.

“We have a good quality squad and now the quantity, so that is why I think we will be stronger this year.”

Goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny, meanwhile, knows Arsenal must also retain a sense of perspective heading into the new season.

He said: “Obviously we are enjoying the win, but what is important is that we are ready to start the season. We are looking strong, but we are not reading too much into it.

“Rather than talking about their lack of threat, I talk about our good defensive performance and the whole team shape as we limited them to a couple of chances.”

Szczesny added: “Hopefully it (squad) will be the most successful one but looking at it on paper, yeah it probably is the strongest one we have had.

“Except for Thomas (Vermaelen), we have not lost any key players, even if someone did leave on a free, we have managed to replace them with good players.

“As I said, we are looking stronger and stronger and we are very happy with that.”

Ospina was brought in to provide some healthy competition for the number one jersey following the departure of Lukasz Fabianski to Swansea.

Szczesny said: “I am going to enjoy that. At such a big club you expect very strong competition, so I am sure it will make us both better goalkeepers.”

According to Foxsports

Manchester City’s new £32million signing Eliaquim Mangala has joined the Premier League champions to bolster their quest for trophies.

The 23-year-old central defender has finally completed a move which originally began seven months ago and he is keen to settle in and help the side build on a second Barclays Premier League title in three years.

City first tried to secure the Frenchman in the January transfer window, but complications with the player’s third-party ownership meant it was impossible to complete within the month.

However, given the additional time for negotiations, the champions have been able to thrash out a solution to a complicated deal, the details of which have not become much clearer following its completion.

Former club Porto released a statement to the Portuguese securities market commission indicating they were paid 30.5million euros (£24.4million) for 56.67 per cent of the rights of the player.

However, Press Association Sport understands City have paid a total of £32million (40million euros) for the transfer.

The intricacies of who paid what to whom is of little interest to Mangala, however, who just wants to begin a new chapter in Manchester.

“City is a top club in Europe. For me, it was an important step to leave Porto and join Manchester City in order to continue my progress,” said the central defender, who has signed a five-year contract.

“I want to win titles and I believe I can do this. I am ambitious and this is why I am here.

“I’m very happy to come to England because for me the Premier League is the best league in the world.”

Mangala brings much-needed strength to City’s defence, which was exposed in their 3-0 FA Community Shield defeat to Arsenal at Wembley on Sunday.

With captain Vincent Kompany and Martin Demichelis, City’s established centre-back pair last season, sitting out the match as a result of their World Cup exertions with Belgium and Argentina, the makeshift pairing of Dedryck Boyata and Matija Nastasic looked less than comfortable.

Kompany and Demichelis are likely to return for City’s Premier League opener at Newcastle on Sunday, but Mangala will provide important cover which was lacking last season but still did not derail their title triumph.

Mangala believes he will adapt quickly and hopes the presence of former Porto team-mate Fernando, who City signed in June, and some other familiar faces will make the settling-in process easier.

“It is a very intense and very aggressive competition. There are plenty of goals, so it is also really nice to watch and I can’t wait to get started,” the new signing told mcfc.co.uk.

“The fact that Fernando is here is better because I played with him at Porto, but there are also other players that I know like (Bacary) Sagna, (Gael) Clichy and (Samir) Nasri.”

Mangala is manager Manuel Pellegrini’s sixth signing of the summer having brought in full-back Sagna, goalkeeper Willy Caballero and midfielders Fernando, Frank Lampard (on loan) and Bruno Zuculini.

He may be another foreign import – City had no English player in their starting line-up at Wembley – but the City boss is not concerned about where his players come from.

“It doesn’t matter if they’re English players, American players, Spanish players. For me it’s exactly the same,” he said in the aftermath of the defeat.

“In every competition we play I’ll play the team that I think is best to win that game.”

On the arrival of Mangala, he said: “I’m delighted to have added a player of Eliaquim’s quality in the squad ahead of the new season.

“He is already a fine player but in my opinion, he has all of the mental, physical, technical and tactical attributes to become one of Europe’s very best defenders.

“Eliaquim is a player I believe will make an immediate impact in the Premier League, thanks to his physicality, his reading of the game and quality on the ball.

“I think he will prove to be a great signing for us.”

According to Foxsports