Mikel Arteta says he is not going to forget Arsenal coming close in the Premier League title race last season and thinks the “pain and hunger” is very much necessary to finally lay their hands on the trophy.
The Gunners went tail to rail with Manchester City all through the season but eventually missed out on the final day of the season.
It was yet another similar disappointing end to the campaign for the second season in succession. This time around, even the fact that they improved their points tally was not enough for them to see it over the line.
The Gunners ended the season on 89 points, two behind City, who were champions once again for the fourth season in a row.
Mikel Arteta’s men will now be looking to make it third time lucky and Arsenal tickets will be very much on the rise, with many looking to see how the young squad will respond as the 2024/2025 season progresses
Ahead of the resumption of the Premier League after the October international break, Arteta has now called on his Arsenal squad to channel the pain from ‘near-wins’ into a challenge that will materialize to a title-winning season next term.
Arteta urges the Arsenal side to not forget the pain of near-wins
Asked whether it has taken him a while to get over the pain of missing out, Arteta said in an interview with ESPN: “I don’t want to get over it. I am really satisfied with the way the team is performing, the way the players are evolving, what the team transmits, and the momentum we have as a football club. In all departments, not only on the men’s side but the women’s side, what we are doing with the academy, the prospects that we have there.
“But we need that pain and that hunger to achieve what we want to achieve because the competition is unbelievable and we are going to need everybody feeling that way to achieve it.
“When you are analytical and you gather all the stats and everything the team has done over the past 11 months in the Premier League, we should have won it. That’s what the stats say. The reality is that we didn’t so there is something that is there that we haven’t managed as well as Man City or other clubs in the past.
“I think we understand where those margins are. I think we have come very far. We have been really consistent now in the past 24 months in terms of performance and the levels that we want to hit. But those margins are super small. One thing is to get the 90% that we want and actually the 10%, 5%, 1% is what defines success and winning major trophies.
“Now we have to continue to do all the right things that we are doing and just make those small margins that are going to be able to win the tournaments.”
It was not a long time after Arsenal claimed a win over Everton on the final day of the 2023/24 season that many started to think about whether they could topple Manchester City next year.
“I could feel it straight away,” said Arteta.
“We have a gathering together after the final whistle against Everton and that was the only thing they were talking about: What are we going to do next season?
“They are looking at us and saying, ‘OK, what is next? What are you going to do next? How are you going to again turn the wheel and find something else, that extra motivation, other tactics and something amongst the group that is going to elevate everybody’s level?’
“The club is sharing that vision and we are trying to achieve that.”
Can Arsenal challenge again in the 2024/25 season?
At the moment, it does seem like Arsenal will do more of the same as they did last season in the upcoming campaign. The Gunners look well-balanced to challenge for the new season and with the core of the players still young, there is no reason why they can’t finally go all the way this time around.
However, Arteta would have to hope that everything aligns in his side’s favour. For starters, the Spaniard must get his tactics right, make the hard decisions and rotate the squad effectively enough to maintain a competitive edge across all competitions.
To go with, Arteta must also hope that his players stay injury-free for a good part of the campaign to help maintain that stability in the team’s lineup.
Lastly, a bit of luck is needed to just hope that City are at this point ‘tired’ of winning the league and not fired up to go five in a row.
Arteta’s future remains something to keep an eye on
Arteta’s future at Arsenal has been something of a talking point of late, with his current contract set to expire in the summer of 2025.
There is talk of what could happen as the Spaniard remains linked with a move to Barcelona, where he came through the youth academy setup, but he appears likely to stay at Arsenal at the moment.
“There is no update at the moment. The thing that hasn’t changed is how happy I am and how valued I feel here and how much I love representing this club.
“Things happen naturally and our relationship is so good that I don’t predict any issues happening. But things have to develop in the right way and it will happen.
“The focus now is ‘OK, how we can improve things around the team, how we can improve now the things in the transfer window that we have.’ We have time to sit down and discuss that.”