“In my heart and in my soul … this is what I am hoping for, yes,” Mikel Arteta says, as he prepares to go through the routine once again. It will be for the third time in the past fortnight or so and yet it is a movie the Arsenal manager has seen on countless occasions over the years – from a role on both sides, which only adds to the drama; the fear factor, too, which he must surely fight.
Arteta’s team play first on Saturday as the Premier League title race nears its climax – at home to Bournemouth at 12.30pm. And then the defending champions, Manchester City, will have to respond when they host Wolves at 5.30pm.
It was a similar story around Arsenal’s previous two fixtures – the wins over Chelsea and Tottenham. City played after, beating Brighton and Forest. It is fun to imagine how Arteta lived those City matches, watching from afar, unable to influence anything; high from Arsenal’s results, then low when City punched back. As they have always done under Pep Guardiola.
Arteta’s focus remains on ensuring that his players get their job done and, ideally, in less breathless fashion than the 3-2 win over Bournemouth in the corresponding fixture last season. That was in early March when they came back from a 2-0 deficit after the hour to win with a 97th-minute Reiss Nelson goal. And then who knows? Arteta will urge Wolves towards a result which would give Arsenal control of their title-winning destiny.
“You know what is going on [with my emotions],” Arteta says, when asked how it has been to watch City. “You just want to win [the title] and to win you need others to drop points and you are hoping for that to happen. And then [after City win] you have to manage your emotion because there are still a lot of games and points to play for. You are going to have to perform, prepare and win the next match in order to maintain that momentum.”
Arsenal need only one slip from City for the door to be prised ajar and yet the truth is that when Guardiola has had the title within his grasp at City – even with a long run to it and zero margin for error – he has never let it go, winning in five of the past six seasons. A good example came in 2018-19 when Arteta was his assistant and City won their last 14 games to take the trophy by a point ahead of Liverpool.
“As well we expect [that],” Arteta says. “When you look at what they have done in the last seven, eight years and the amount of points you have to have [to compete with them]; those sequences and those kinds of momentums to reach that amount of points. So it’s not a surprise.”
If it is the hope that kills, it also inspires and Arteta wants to remind everyone, not least his players, about the progress they have made. Why was there no mention, he wondered, after Sunday’s win at Spurs of how Arsenal had secured a second successive Champions League qualification via league position? That had felt a long way away when they trailed in fifth behind Spurs in 2021-22. The answer, of course, is they now have loftier goals.
Arteta, who reported that he had a fully fit squad, with Jurriën Timber available again after nine months out with damage to an ACL, talked about wanting to get much better; how he would love to build a dynasty of success. First and exclusively, though, it is beating Bournemouth.
“There’s always room for improvement but I think the team is more mature,” Arteta says. “The health of the squad is in a much better position. All these factors contribute to being in a better position.”
