Mikel Arteta claims Arsenal’s return to the Champions League won’t affect their approach to the schedule, but they’re really excited to be back.

Arsenal are back in the Champions League this season, with the Gunners playing their first match since returning to the competition against PSV Eindhoven next Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of Arsenal’s match against Everton this weekend, Arteta answered a question about how the return to the Champions League may or may not affect his approach to the upcoming schedule.

“Well, it’s exactly the same as last year,” Arteta said. “We played every three days, but it was the Europa League. So the competition is different.

“Obviously, the demands of that competition and the expectations are different, especially as we’ve been away from there for seven years.

“But it’s excitement. This is where we want to be. When you look at the fixtures and the games that we have to play, I think everybody’s really looking forward to it.”

It’s true that Arsenal used a lot of their first-choice players in the Europa League last season anyway, so playing in the Champions League shouldn’t make a huge amount of difference.

Perhaps the effects will be felt more if the Gunners can continue to progress through the competition to the last-16 and beyond, when they are most likely to face some of the very best sides in Europe.

It’s easy enough to rotate a few players out when you’re playing against FC Zurich in the Europa League, but not so much when you’ve got a last-16 game against FC Barcelona in the Champions League.

But that’s a problem for the second half of the campaign, and it’s worth bearing in mind that Arsenal have another transfer window before then.

If the Gunners make it to the knockout stages and compete towards the top of the Premier League table, perhaps then they’ll need to think about some additional reinforcements from the market.

Arteta should have enough to get the squad through the next couple of months before then.