Exclusive: Mikel Arteta opens up on last season’s Premier League heartbreak – ‘We missed certain key things'

Mikel Arteta has opened up on the disappointment he felt after Arsenal were pipped to the Premier League title by Manchester City.

The Arsenal boss was talking ahead of the Gunners' Premier League fixture against Newcastle live on TNT Sports and discovery+.

Arsenal topped the table for 248 days last season, a record for a side that didn’t go on to win the title, as they attempted to clinch a first domestic crown in 2003/04.

Three successive draws followed by a 4-1 defeat to Man City saw them usurped before further defeats to Brighton and Nottingham Forest ended their hopes for good.

After all the hard work, the end result was a third straight title for Pep Guardiola’s side and speaking on 'Moments That Made Me' for TNT Sports, Arteta discussed the impact it had on him and what he learned from falling short when it mattered most.

“It took me a while [to get over it] because I really wanted to win the Premier League and I think we became really close,” Arteta said. “There are some learnings as well, I think the biggest one is when it gets to March, April, you need to be 24 hours on it, available, fit and focused, and we didn’t have those four things.

“We missed certain key things not to do that but at the end you have to judge what you have done and with the amount of points and games that we won, any other season maybe you can win the league.

“In sport that’s the difference. You can do something very well but there is someone else that does it a little bit better [and] then you fail.

“Then you have to shake hands and say, ‘I’m sorry, they have done it, they have got more points’ and you have to take it.”

Despite missing out on the ultimate prize, it was a season of progress for Arsenal after finishing fifth in 2021/22. But there was still a major hurdle to get over ahead of the new campaign.

City’s 4-1 triumph was their 12th in a row in the Premier League over the north London club and 15th in 16 in all competitions, stretching back to November 2017.

Desperate to end the hoodoo, a penalty shoot-out win in the Community Shield gave Arsenal renewed belief before the domestic drought was finally brought to an end with a 1-0 victory last October, a result that was worth more than just three points.

“We had been really close and the last year we have been really close, especially at home and we didn’t [win],” he added. “Then we beat them in the Community Shield to lift the trophy and that was a big boost and that helped for this one [the league game] as well.

“When you are competing at that level against the best team in the world, you need to be so good to beat them.

“That day we did a lot of things incredibly well and when we had one or two moments, we took them and it was a special day.”

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