Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta says his squad was te min to outrun Manchester City in their 2022-23 Premier League title race.
Arteta’s Gunners led the Premier League for an incredible 248 days - the most for a team who lost it in the end according to Opta stats.
Blowing an eight-point lead, the Gunners remarkably then surrendered their title fight on Saturday with a 1-0 defeat to Nottingham Forest which saw City win the league with three games to play.
Full time at the City Ground. pic.twitter.com/MZk9YbRGK7
— Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 20, 2023
Incredible, considering they had an eight-point advantage just last month.
How did they manage to mess it up? Arteta explains: ““When you come to April and May, you need 24 players that are available, fit and playing at their best, full of confidence and ready to go. For many reasons, we haven’t had that.
“Then there are key moments in the league that define whether the moment goes there or there, and we didn’t have those margins going on our side.
“ I think that’s the reason that we lost it.”
The goal that secured our #PL status! 🍿 pic.twitter.com/2gTjjCxazh
— Nottingham Forest (@NFFC) May 20, 2023
He adds: “It’s a really sad day and there are a lot of difficult emotions.
“Obviously because we lost the game and we lost the championship after 10 and a half months fighting for it.
“I know that we have built an illusion, enthusiasm and belief that we could go all the way and win it, and we fell short.
“So congratulations to Manchester City, they’re the champions and they deserve to be the champions.”