Arsenal faced Nottingham Forest at the City Ground on Saturday in what was the penultimate game of the Gunners’ season. However it didn’t go as expected, with Forest handing Manchester City the Premier League title after a 1-0 victory against Mikel Arteta’s side.
The loss meant Manchester City were crowned Premier League champions for the third consecutive year & ended Arsenal’s dream of winning their first league title in 19 years.
There’s no doubt this Arsenal team have overachieved this season compared to expectations back in August. However the way the Gunners have collapsed in recent weeks has put a downer on the brilliant season they’ve had.
Mikel Arteta lost William Saliba & Takehiro Tomiyasu with long-term injuries in March, then minor injuries to Zinchenko and Partey, as well as losing Gabriel Martinelli towards the end of the season – All these injuries proved costly in the title race and Arsenal simply couldn’t cope with them.
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Losing at the City Ground on Saturday meant Arsenal have only won two of their last eight games. When the pressure mounted in the title race, the Gunners crumbled. However while the emotions were high on Saturday, Mikel Arteta took a moment to send a classy message to his former-side, Manchester City by congratulating them on their title win.
Mikel Arteta during the defeat to Nottingham Forest. [Image Credit: Getty Images]
Mikel Arteta: “First of all congratulations to City for winning the championship and it is a really sad day for us after everything we have done in the season. Now we have to face the reality and we gave a goal away, a huge chance away that we gave them, and couldn’t break them down.”
“We’d have been here three hours and still we didn’t have enough to do that, so we have to face it, it is my responsibility and I have to take it.”
“It started with what happened at Anfield in the 90th minute and we give it away and then you go to West Ham and you can make it 3-1 and that’s going to change. We have conceded a lot of goals, we have given 16 goals away in those matches, it’s a lot, you know a lot, you cannot sustain that.”
“To win in this league you have to be exceptional at everything, because there are no margins. That team doesn’t give you any margins and we have extended those margins too much and that’s how we lost the league.”
Writer’s opinion: Things did not end the way Arsenal and their fans would have wanted it to this season. However the progress made is undeniable. The Gunners are back in the Champions League for the first time in seven years. This is just the beginning. Arsenal will be back even stronger next season.
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