Mikel Arteta has named two key moments which cost Arsenal the 2023-24 Premier League title after they painfully missed out to Manchester City.
The Gunners were hoping to clinch the English top-flight trophy for the first time in 20 years with the title race going all the way to Sunday’s final round of games.
Arsenal missed out in heartbreaking circumstances for the second campaign in a row, though, as City beat West Ham on the last day of the season to win the title.
Kai Havertz insists that City’s triumph is ‘not fair’ while Arsenal manager Arteta has now shared his own opinion on his team’s failure to stop Pep Guardiola’s men.
‘For sure [the 2-0 defeat to] Aston Villa at home [in April],’ Arteta picked as one of the decisive moments in the title race in his post-match press conference.
‘In the first half it should have been 4-0. Maybe the story would have been different.’
Arteta also referenced City’s 2-0 victory over Tottenham in the penultimate round of games.
‘What happened last Tuesday, maybe we could have been champions,’ Arteta added. ‘These are the margins that are so, so, so small.
‘That’s the credit that the club and the team should take. We’re doing this against the best team in the history of the Premier League by far.’
Speaking more generally about Arsenal’s second-placed finish, Arteta insisted that Premier League glory is eventually coming to the Emirates, and that he may dip into the summer transfer market to strengthen the squad.
‘If we do what we have to do, we’re going to be closer and at the end we’ll win [the title],’ Arteta added. ‘When, I don’t know. But if we keep knocking and being that close, in the end it will happen.
‘There’s only one way to do it: you have to be more determined, you have to be more ambitious, you have to have a lot of courage and push every limit in everything that we have. That’s the next step.
‘First one and most important [plan for the summer] is how we are going to get these players to a different level. That is my first job and after that, if we still don’t have enough, for sure we will have to do everything we can to fulfil those gaps [with new signings].’
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