Arteta reveals what forced Arsenal to be excellent this season

Mikel Arteta has admitted that his team faced a huge challenge to match the standards set by Liverpool and Manchester City over the years.

The Gunners have been challenging for the Premier League title in back-to-back seasons, and they are once again contenders for the English championship this campaign.

Arsenal has been in stunning form in 2024 and could end the second half of the season with just one league defeat, yet it might not be enough to win the title.

Liverpool and City have set a high standard for title races in the last decade as they consistently challenged each other. There have been seasons where the Reds accumulated over 90 points and still fell short of winning the title.

Arsenal is now getting to that level and Arteta admits to Arsenal Media:

“We are improving. When you look at the numbers in position with the top teams, it’s really positive. You need that – those head-to-head games become super important as you can see in the league table and it means that we are improving.

“It’s a challenge but at the same time, it’s very inspiring. When you have two of the best managers in the world [Guardiola and Klopp] with two huge clubs, competing and facing them in their eyes and willing to be better than them, you learn from it. You challenge yourself and seek excellence because it’s the only way to try to beat them.”

Just Arsenal Opinion

We met a serious rivalry between Liverpool and City, so we had to improve our standards to earn the right to challenge them to be champions.