This can be my best year - Everton star Mikel Arteta

But, having played through the pain barrier for much of the campaign, it was a physically and mentally exhausted 26-year-old that was finally forced to admit defeat to the abdominal and groin problems that hampered his game for eight months.

Having undergone surgery in May to rectify the problem once and for all, Arteta has spent much of an arduous summer following a programme of intense rehabilitation.

Now, with Everton this evening playing host to PSV Eindhoven in their final pre-season friendly, the midfielder is itching to make amends for the aggravation of last season by producing his best-ever campaign for the club.

"Last season was very frustrating," admits Arteta. "But I didn't have any choice. The only other option was to have the surgery or stop playing for 10 weeks and see what happens.

"I had to keep going back to Spain, and for five or six months I don't think I trained for a week completely.

"It all affected by fitness and my confidence levels. I played a lot of games. We did a comparison with other players who had suffered my injury, and they didn't play 20% of the amount of games I ended up playing in.

"It just makes all the more determined to do well this season. I'd never had surgery before in my life, I don't want to have that any more. Now I'm really hungry now to have my best season at Everton."

Although now completely injury-free and playing without pain, Arteta accepts the next obstacle to overcome is a mental one.

Despite his well-struck goal in the 2-1 win over Colorado Rapids in Denver earlier this week, the Spaniard admits his confidence in striking a ball has still not fully returned.

But Arteta is convinced he can be fighting fit for the Premier League opener at home to Blackburn Rovers next Saturday.

"It's been a hard summer for me," he says. "I've been doing even more work than the others because of the rehab. I'm maybe a couple of weeks ahead of schedule, so things are going well.

"Obviously I don't feel 100% yet, but to be where I am a week before the season, I'm happy with that. I feel as though I'll be okay for the start of the season.

"I had a nightmare for eight months and tried to get through it as much as I could. But now I just want to be playing again, free from pain and able to give 100%.

"I don't feel any pain now, but I still feel a little limited in some of the things I'm doing. For example, I'm very scared to shoot and hit the ball hard because I'd been feeling pain when doing that for a long time.

"The tissue has obviously not healed fully yet, that will take three or four months from the operation. I'm doing everything I can, though."

The win over the Rapids was only Everton's second in six games of a testing pre-season both on and off the pitch.

It followed an alarming 2-0 defeat to Chicago Fire, but Arteta is an advocate of Moyes's penchant for tours to the United States.

"Maybe it's superstition that we go to America, because we always do well after we've been there," he says. "The manager likes it and we work very, very hard in training.

"It means that maybe we don't go into the games as fresh as we like, and that's why we lost last year to Real Salt Lake and this time to Chicago Fire.

"But the results are not important in pre-season, it's about getting yourself fit and ready for the first game."

Nevertheless, the indifferent performances have further concerned a fanbase that has already grown anxious at the lack of movement in the transfer market.

And Arteta says: "We can only ask the fans to be patient. We're worried because we're low on numbers and we've lost key players like Stubbsy, Manuel Fernandes and Cars, and we've had players injured or coming back from injury.

"But everybody is together, we have confidence in each other. The squad spirit is still there.

"The manager and the chairman want very specific players, and it's been hard for them to get them. The fans just have to be patient, because if we get the right players then it will be worth the wait."

He adds: "We're competing with the likes of Newcastle, Manchester City, Portsmouth and Tottenham, and they're all paying big money for players.

"We're going to be playing in four competitions and the level is going to be higher again this season. We've lost players both in terms of the squad and the dressing room itself.

"We know it's not been a great pre-season in terms of results and we need to improve on that.

"It's going to be a hard season because of the increased expectations. So we can't take a step back now, we need to get moving forward."

And what better way for Everton to move forward than with a new, improved, fit Arteta pulling the strings?