Last season was the first time Arnold failed to coach an A-League side to a finals berth.

The Sky Blues' title ambitions were thwarted by underperforming imports, injuries, late season departures and an inabilty to manage both the Asian Champions League and A-League at the same time.

And barely a week out from their season-opener against the Wanderers, Arnold said their biggest threat would come from within.

“If you ask me who our biggest opponents are, I’d say ourselves,”  Arnold told FourFourTwo.

“Any team can win it this year. As the A-League matures the players are getting better, the sports science, the fitness, the coaches tactically are getting better and so on. It’s the same with the foreigners that are coming.

 “We’ve got a make sure we turn up and do all the one percenters right and be ready for the game and our preparations need to be spot on. Because teams have recruited and we have recruited well and it will be tough.”

Embarking on his third year with Sydney, Arnold said the knowledge gained from last season would define the tact he would take when assembling his troops this campaign.

“This year if anything I’ve gone for more quality over quantity last year,” he said. “The first year I inherited 17 or 18 players. Last year I still had some of them and we lost some of them. Bernie Ibini went overseas, Mark Janko, Terry Antonis and Alex Gersbach left. In a salary cap system, it’s hard to replace especially when they leave late, like Gersbach did and that upset the balance of the team.

“People also underestimate the loss of Alex Brosque. He is our captain, he is a leader, he’s our marquee and he’s a goal scorer. He played 11 games and scored six goals. If you take Jamie Macalaren out of Brisbane, if you take Bruno Fornaroli out of City or Besart Berisha out of Victory you get the same answer.”

A late season slump cost Sydney FC dearly in 2015/16 which Arnold attributed to a series of errors he made while navigating his side's domestic and Asian campaigns.

“I went for extra numbers looking at the Asian Champions League,” he said. “I went for 26 players last year keeping 26 players happy every week is difficult when you can only play 11 and put four or five on the bench.

“In round 16 last season we were two points off the top of the lead after we beat the Wanderers over there. Then the Champions League kicked off. I split the group basically in two, one for Champions League and one for A-League and in hindsight that was wrong. It was a mistake that I made.

“Trying to cope with both competitions because of the scheduling you get from the FFA and then the players don’t train properly there is no togetherness, they feel left out and then you become a dispirited bunch.

“That was probably the biggest lesson I learnt out of last year.”