Mikel Arteta insists Arsenal achieved their targets for the season

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By Martin Graham | 29th May 2023

Despite several analysis that claimed Arsenal ‘bottled’ this season, Mikel Arteta claimed the Gunners achieved their aim of securing Champions League football.

Arsenal were top of the table for well over 200 days and were 11 points clear of Manchester City at one point. It looked like the Gunners club would end their 19-year wait for a league title but a late-season capitulation saw Mikel Arteta’s men record three successive draws before losing twice to Manchester City, who ended up being crowned Premier League champions for the fifth time in six seasons.

Giving how close Arsenal came to winning the title, many claim the Gunners ‘bottled’ and have nothing to be proud of. However, Mikel Arteta is of a different opinion and once again states that the aim for the campaign was secured.

Arsenal ended their 2022/23 campaign with a five-star performance against Wolves, claiming a thumping 5-0 victory to end the season with a respectable 84 points.

In a season of many ‘ifs’, Arteta gave his assessment of his side’s achievements.

Arsenal had a good season, claims Arteta

“I don’t know, we wanted to bring the club back to the Champions League, that was the main target. That was already a big demand, especially in the summer before we did certain things and before we managed to keep some of our players, and then the journey started by day we started to have a feeling the team is moving in the right direction, the spirit, the energy is good.”

He continued: “You start to win a game two, three, and you start to generate some belief, obviously we didn’t expect to finish where we are, the third best ever record in the history of the club in terms of points, most wins ever.”

“It’s a lot but it’s still not enough to win it, we understand where the level is, and we really want to be the real deal, we don’t have to be happy with what we have and we have to be next season, much, much better.”

Arsenal are expected to be busy in the upcoming transfer window and Arteta says the club will try to sort recruitment as early as possible.

He added: “I’m really interested in understand and reflect and analysis what we have in the house, the resources we have already and how we can improve, how we maximise and take players to a different level, the ones that we haven’t got everything from, do it and the bonus will be make those decisions and improve the team.”

“We don’t want to lose that cohesion that exists around the team and that understand, hopefully we will make the right decision.”