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Arsenal are now close to reaching the top of their progression arch under Mikel Arteta, having become one of the best teams in the world after years of being the almost team.
The Premier League has crowned the Gunners as the best team in England, and they reached the Champions League final, losing only in a penalty shootout.
Arsenal have been working towards the feat, but Arteta knew all along, and there were a number of statements that indicated his belief in this project. Here we take a look back at some of the comments that prove what Arteta knew.
May 2024 - "We want much more."
""All this is happening because you started believing, you started to be patient and started to understand what we tried to do. All the credit has to go to the players and the staff. Now it's time to have a break, think and reflect. Please, keep pushing and inspiring this team. Don't be satisfied. We want much more than that and we’re going to get it.""
Speaking after Arsenal fell just short in the 2023/24 season, Arteta gave a passionate address on the pitch at the Emirates Stadium.
The fans responded positively, knowing how close their team had come to ending the club's title drought, and indeed that they had the potential to finally get the job done.
Last season was a disappointment, so what followed the speech was not ideal, but football is not a linear sport, and Arteta clearly saw a potential that could, at some point, be realised. Two years on, it has been.
July 2025 - "We want to build a team"
"“The Tier One, Two, Three system I don’t believe in that much now. The way the game’s evolving, the demands we put in with 70, 75 games per season. At the end we want to build a team, like other clubs already have, where you look at the squad and you cannot really identify who is going to play tomorrow. If we get to that point, and that competitiveness has as well the right level of co-operation between the players, that’s what we want.”"
In the summer of 2025, we finally saw Arteta get it as far as squad building was concerned. He and Edu had built an impressive squad, but it had clear starters who were not in any jeopardy of losing their spot.
Across the whole team, you could point to the starters and a chasm behind them before the next player, who was meant to be competing to start. That does not work in high achievement.
In life, and particularly in sport, you rarely get the best out of people unless they feel as though they can be replaced. Arteta finally got that after falling short to Liverpool, and while he was fortunate that the club backed him so firmly, the result was a squad bursting at the seams with depth. The result was a Premier League title.
December 2024 - "The best at everything"
""We want to be the kings of everything. On set pieces, the best in the world; on high press, the best in the world; attacking in open spaces, the best in the world. Best atmosphere and stadium - the best at everything. Before it was we didn't score enough, we didn't challenge, we didn't win big games for 20 years. We want to be the best at everything.""
Speaking in December of 2024, when asked about his side's proficiency at set-pieces, Arteta made it clear he wants his team to be the best at everything, and not just one speciality.
That was a clear statement of his ambition to build the best team in the world, and he is now very close to that, around 18 months later.
It's tough to be the best at everything, of course, but Arsenal are at least close to being the best at most things in the Premier League, and they are not too far off worldwide. The journey towards achieving that continues, and the next step is proving it against the team most perceive as the best team in the world, currently PSG, something they failed to do last weekend.
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