Arsenal have now lost back-to-back Premier League titles to Manchester City after finishing two points behind the champions at the end of the 2023-24 campaign.
The Gunners finished five points behind Man City last term, and while manager Mikel Arteta was critical of his players’ attitude after they blew that title, the Spaniard was calmer and more relaxed during the run-in this season, always publicly supporting his players after significant defeats.
However, the Arsenal boss was always passionate about winning behind closed doors, blasting his players after they lost 1-0 via a stoppage-time goal to FC Porto in the Champions League round-of-16 first leg in February.
According to The Times, Arteta told his players in the dressing room in Portugal that they could not afford to drop their standards and had to be footballers, and not wannabe stars, if they wanted to be successful and overtake Man City.
Arsenal responded in the second leg at Emirates Stadium the following month, winning on penalties after securing a 1-0 victory and drawing themselves level on aggregate.
They lost just twice across all competitions during the remainder of the season afterwards, but those two defeats eventually proved costly.
Arsenal lost 2-0 to Aston Villa at Emirates in mid-April before suffering a 1-0 defeat at Bayern Munich in the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals three days later and getting dumped out of the elite Europe competition.
The defeat to Villa was their fifth league loss of the campaign, which allowed Man City to overtake them in the table.
Arteta’s speech after the Porto game definitely got to the players and they were almost perfect from that moment, but they have to become even better next season if they are to overtake Man City, and their manager will ensure he gets the best out of them heading into 2024-25.
