Mikel Arteta says Arsenal ‘are still upset’ after Manchester City defeat but ‘loved’ his players’ mentality

ByJames Hilsum

Updated 01/05/2023 at 15:50 GMT+1

Mikel Arteta has been delighted by Arsenal's improvement this season and to secure a Champions League place for the next campaign. He highlighted the hunger his players are showing to compete at the highest level and that they are not content to settle for second best. The Gunners are back in action at the Emirates on Tuesday night when they host Frank Lampard's Chelsea side.

'When I look at it, this is not over’ - Arteta on title race

Mikel Arteta expressed his pride in Arsenal’s progress this season and how the players are not content to settle for second best.

The Gunners were humbled by a 4-1 defeat to Premier League title rivals Manchester City on April 26, but Arteta insists his players have a drive to compete at the highest level and remain as hungry as ever for success.

"Within the disappointment [after defeat to Manchester City] and the spirit around it, there are two things,” Arteta said in his pre-match press conference.

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"Firstly, we need to recognise what a lot of people have done at the club to get us back into the Champions League. It was already a difficult thing to achieve and not a lot of people were optimistic that we had the ability to do that at the start of the season.

"So, the first thing is to recognise what a lot of good work people have done to try to achieve that.

"The second thing, which is what I like the most, is that even after achieving that with six games to go - something that I don't think has been done in more than a decade at this club - we are still not satisfied, we are still upset and we want more.

"We want to be consistently [competing] with the best. That is the mentality that we need and that is what I have loved more over the last few days."

The Premier League title is now in City’s hands, with Pep Guardiola’s men moving top of the table with a 2-1 win over Fulham on Sunday.

However, Arteta is refusing to give up the challenge yet and feels that an historic first title in 19 years is still achievable for the Gunners.

He continued: "We have achieved what is difficult to achieve and we can still achieve the Premier League because there is five games to go and a lot of things are going to happen still.

"What we have to do is forget about what happened last week, learn from it and move on into the next game at home in a London derby and put things right."

Arsenal will face a Chelsea side in free-fall at the Emirates on Tuesday night, after losing all five league and cup games since Frank Lampard returned to become interim manager.

Arteta's men have also won five of the past six meetings between the two clubs in all competitions, but will be looking to arrest their own four-match winless run themselves in a bid to keep the title race alive.

Arteta confirmed that defender William Saliba will not be available for the match.

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