How does Arteta deliver step five of his Arsenal plan?

Arsenal are aiming to win back-to-back league titles for the first time since the 1930s - but can they improve going forwards to achieve it? Watch Arsenal vs Coventry in the opening Premier League game live on Sky Sports on Friday from 7pm, kick-off 8pm

When Mikel Arteta arrived at Arsenal, he presented a five-step plan to go from crisis club to glory. Welcome to step five: create a dynasty.

Up until this year, steps one to four were about getting Arsenal back to the Arsene Wenger days of winning major honours again.

With his Arsenal team reigning Premier League champions again, Arteta is now striving to do something the great Wenger never could.

No Arsenal team has successfully defended a top-flight title since the Gunners won three leagues in a row ending in 1935. Not even Wenger's double-winning or 'Invincibles' teams backed up their historic achievement with an immediate title win the following year.

In his pre-match messages, Arteta often turns to creating history as a huge motivation for his team and there will be no doubt he will push the 'back-to-back' narrative to his Arsenal squad over the next nine months.

But dynasty and history are not the only goals Arsenal are aiming for this season. Despite being champions of England - and many analysts' pick to go and win again - there is still improvement needed from the last campaign.

Arsenal have enjoyed a memorable last year but more efficiency in attack could have made last term a superb campaign.

The euphoric scenes of last season - which included countless parties outside the Emirates Stadium and across the world - masked over the Champions League final defeat, where Arsenal failed to get a shot on target for the 114 minutes after they took the lead against Paris Saint-Germain.

It was a missed opportunity for Arteta's side to write themselves into more history - and showed that for all their defensive excellence, there was still a sense of predictability about them going forwards, with question marks over how much they could create and score from open play.

It was not just in the Champions League final where Arsenal struggled in this department. It was the story of their season. While Arsenal were outstanding in the defence and set-pieces category, their open-play numbers left much to be desired.

For all of Arsenal's success last term, they were not in the top three teams in the Premier League for key attacking metrics from open play. The numbers weren't bad, but it is a clear area of improvement.

The question is whether they can rectify that - and become more unpredictable - this season. The 3-0 win over Manchester City in the Community Shield, where Arsenal dominated the game, scored three times from open play, and did not create a single set-piece chance, was an early sign of progress.

Yet the summer transfer window has raised some doubts about whether that attacking efficiency will come and where it will come from, especially regarding the forward line.