Sardinia, Italy
CNN
—
The fate of soccer players, managers and clubs can sometimes be determined by the finest of fine margins.
The width of a goalpost. A dubious Video Assistant Referee (VAR) decision. An unexpected dropped point. Just ask Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
In two successive years he and Arsenal have come to be the perennial bridesmaids to the bride that is Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City.
Last season, the Gunners were edged out in the Premier League title race by five points.
This season, Arsenal was just two agonizing points adrift as City lifted a record-breaking fourth consecutive title.
As the Spaniard knows, history is written by the victors.
“I’m a winner and it takes me a while when I don’t reach the dreams,” Arteta told CNN Sport’s Amanda Davies at the inaugural Globe Soccer Awards Europe Edition in Sardinia, Italy.
“I think we should be very proud of what we’ve done throughout this season, both in European competition and the Premier League.
“But as well, that feeling of being disappointed and not having the Premier League in our hands is painful.”
Progress under Arteta at Arsenal has been on an upwards trajectory ever since the former club captain took over the reins of the North London club in December 2019.
Their position in the league has improved steadily – from eighth in 2019-20 and 2020-21 to fifth in 2021-22, and more recently two successive second-placed finishes. Champions League football has returned to the Emirates and so, too, has silverware.
Yet it is the holy grail of the Premier League that he, the players, and the fans still so greatly crave.
At one point during this season, it seemed that their dream of getting their hands on the trophy for the first time since 2004 were set to be fulfilled.
Whilst the titanic topsy turvy title chase between the Gunners and City came down to the season finale, it was in the end ultimately a sixth title in seven seasons for the Sky Blues.
“I think it’s been a really exciting season right up to the last minutes of the last day and we are fighting for the Premier League,” Arteta said.
“I think we built so much excitement as well as belief around our fans, around the players, around the club, that we really wanted to deliver that moment to them. I think they deserve it. I think the team deserve it.
“You have to congratulate Man City at the end after 38 games. Two points more than us and they are the winners.”
Looking back did the Spaniard have any regrets on how the season played out?
“No regrets,” Arteta said affirmatively.
“You look at moments in the season, but this season’s been almost perfect. To make the amount of points that we made – both us and City – in this competitive league. We cannot compare this league to what happened two years ago, three years ago, five years ago.
“Those numbers … it won’t happen. The level of the league – it’s [at] a different stage now.
“Now [it’s time to] recharge, try to be stronger, seeing where the margins are and go again next season.”
The narrative weaving together both dramatic campaigns has been the relationship between the master Guardiola and his former protégé Arteta – one which stretches back to the duo’s playing days in Catalunya.
The Spaniards first came across one another in 1997 when Arteta joined Barcelona’s academy.
Whilst it was to be a brief encounter, the pair’s friendship grew over the years and the two would once again be reunited nearly two decades later.
Following his retirement as a player in 2016, Arteta became an integral member of Guardiola’s coaching staff at Manchester City, winning seven trophies in his three years as assistant manager at the club.
Since his step up into full-time management with the North London outfit, the two have spoken warmly of their admiration for one another’s work on an off the pitch.
Arteta confirmed he’d exchanged messages with his friend following City’s unprecedented league victory.
“I congratulated him, all the staff,” he said. “At the end they deserved it. They were the winners. We keep chasing it and trying to be better than them.
“One is the professional relationship and that competition and then there’s obviously all the personal feelings that I have towards him and all the staff. I spent four beautiful years over there [in Manchester], and that’s never going to change.”
So how does the former midfielder intend to go about dislodging his compatriot at the top of the tree next season?
“We have to better them. We are closer. When you see all the metrics we are right there. We’ve been the best team in the league in almost every metric,” Arteta said.
“But there is a margin there that somehow we didn’t control well enough and the league is gone and that’s the level.
“It’s very challenging but it’s very inspiring to have a team with such a quality and such a consistency over the last seven, nine years, to try to be better than them. And our focus is, is how we can improve.”
And how Arteta believes he and the club can improve is by trusting the process which, in part, lies in player recruitment.
The Gunners invested significantly in bolstering their squad last summer with high-quality acquisitions throughout the spine of the team.
England international Declan Rice became the most expensive transfer in British history, joining from West Ham United for a reported fee of £105 million ($137.45 million), German Kai Havertz made the switch across London from rivals Chelsea for a hefty price tag and highly-rated full-back Jurrien Timber arrived from Ajax.
Should fans then expect to see another significant outlay this summer?
“[We] look again. All the margins, squad-wise, the process that we have at the football club, our methodology, especially on how we can make our players better, more competitive, more consistent and cause them to raise the level and be better than the previous season,” Arteta said.
“I think our focus has to be with what we have already in house. ‘How can we be better?’
“There are margins and there are players that can still develop and be better and that’s the objective that we have.
“Every decision we’re going to make is to be better, without losing who we are and everything that is taking us in the position that we are now as a football club, as a team.
“The ambition is there. The players, the staff. You can sense it. They want much more. They want to start lifting trophies and that’s the next step.”
Like Guardiola, Arteta has one year remaining on his current contract.
The former hinted after his latest league accomplishment that his stay in the Premier League is more likely than not to be drawing to a close.
All the current indicators and mood music, though, point towards the latter extending his stay in North London beyond 2025 – but nothing is agreed yet.
“In football it’s about today and what we’re going to do today and what you hopefully can do tomorrow,” ruminates Arteta.
“[In] this profession I think having this uncertainty is quite helpful. At least it motivates me, keeps me on my toes, and it keeps me hungry to go again.
“I think we have a great relationship with everybody at the football club. I’m really happy where I am, and things will take care of themselves.”