Arsenal unsatisfied with potential top four finish ahead of crunch time in Premier League
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By Martin Graham | 2nd May 2023
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has spoken about his desire to go all the way and win the Premier League title this season despite achieving the team’s goals of a top four finish and a return to the UEFA Champions League.
The former Manchester City manager is in his third full season with the Gunners, who he captained in the last few seasons of his playing career. After finishing in eight place in 2019/20 and 2020/21, he achieved a fifth place finish in 2021/22 to return Arsenal to European football.
The goal of Champions League could have been achieved in the 2021/22 season but for a late slip up a few games to the end of the season. A similar script is playing out in the 2022/23 season to the chagrin of Arsenal fans.
The club has been top of the league for more than 90 percent of the season, which is the most dominant that a team has ever been in the Premier League. However, a few slip ups in the past few weeks has seen them lose their advantage to defending champions Manchester City, who have a game in hand that could win them the title come May 28, 2023.
While the goal of Champions League football has been comfortably achieved, the larger goal of a title win is what fans were looking forward to celebrating the most. Arteta is of the same opinion and has thanked his squad for having the same mindset as they prepare to face Chelsea on Tuesday evening.
A win against their London rivals will send them back on top of the league, albeit only for a short period of time pending the outcome of City’s next game.
Speaking ahead of the Chelsea clash, Arteta said: “Within the disappointment and the spirit around [the club], we need to do two things – recognise what a lot of people around the club have done to get us back into the Champions League, which was already a difficult thing to achieve.
“Not a lot of people were very optimistic that we had the ability to do that at the start of the season, and we need to start recognising the good work that a lot of people have done to achieve that.
“The second thing – which I like the most – is that even achieving that with six games to go – something that hasn’t happened in more than a decade at this club – that we are still not satisfied, still upset and we want more. If we want the club to be consistently with the best, that’s the mentality we need and that’s what I’ve loved most over the last few days.
“We can still achieve the Premier League because there are five games to go and there are a lot of things that are still going to happen. What we have to do is forget about what happened last week, learn from it and move on to the next game at home with our people for a London derby and put things right.”
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