Calafiori determined to turn World Cup pain into more Arsenal glory

Riccardo Calafiori admits he could barely bring himself to watch the World Cup after Italy’s failure to qualify – but says the disappointment has given him extra motivation to help Arsenal defend their Premier League title this season.

The Italy defender enjoyed a summer break while many of his Arsenal team-mates were away at the tournament, but says missing out on football’s biggest stage was too painful to watch.

“I haven’t watched a lot,” said Calafiori.

“I said from the beginning because obviously I have so much pain in my tummy not to qualify. It hurt how big it was.

“Even if you don’t want to watch the World Cup, it’s that big that everywhere you go you still see it on TV, every match.”

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Instead, Calafiori used the time to rest and recharge before returning for pre-season, where Arsenal are preparing to defend the Premier League title they won last season.

“I had a good window to rest and of course I have to give this energy that I have still in my body to my team,” he said. “I think I can help the team a lot this season.”

The 24-year-old believes Arsenal’s title success should be the start of a new era rather than the end of one, insisting Mikel Arteta’s squad are determined to build a dynasty at the top of English football.

“I think it’s the level that we want to reach and we want to stay at this level,” he said. “The Premier League has to be a new cycle and we want to stay at that.”

Rather than being satisfied after ending Arsenal’s long wait for the title, Calafiori says the disappointments of last season are providing even greater motivation.

The Gunners narrowly missed out on completing a trophy treble after losing in both the Champions League and another domestic final.

“I think it’s not that complicated because obviously we reached two finals last season and we lost them,” he said. “It’s so easy to start again from there and to try to win it.”

Calafiori believes Arsenal are only the finest of margins away from enjoying even greater success.

“Especially the game in the Champions League showed it,” he added. “At the end it was a detail. It was a penalty.”

Despite Arsenal’s 3-1 pre-season defeat to Real Betis in Dublin, Calafiori insisted preparations remain firmly on track.

“I was really happy so far and I’m still happy,” he said. “Of course we always want to win, but we had some good moments and some good actions. We could have done better and now we move on to the next one.”

With the Community Shield fast approaching, Calafiori hopes Arsenal can channel the hurt of both Italy’s World Cup absence and last season’s near misses into another memorable campaign.

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