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Mikel Arteta's Arsenal marked their final home game of the season with a 1-0 win over Newcastle on Sunday afternoon and he had some words to say following the match.
The Gunners all but secured a second-place finish for a third consecutive season as well as confirming their spot in next season's Champions League and with it being the last match to be played at the Emirates Stadium until the new campaign, Arteta followed tradition by addressing the crowd.
The boss acknowledged the dream was to be boasting trophies, but that couldn't be achieved due to varying circumstances. Arteta made sure that, despite the failure to win silverware, he praised both his players, staff and the fans for their support throughout the campaign.
Mikel Arteta praises Arsenal's ability to deal with injuries this season
Arsenal have struggled tremendously with injuries this season and no one can argue that was a great hinderance in their attempts to win their first Premier League title in over 20 years.
Between the start of the season and matchday 34 when Liverpool confirmed their status as league champions, the Gunners had 16 players miss at least one game due to injury. Among those were key players such as Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka, who missed hefty parts of the campaign with injuries.
When looking at those numbers, it is difficult to dispute that had Arsenal not been affected so much, they would have put up a much better fight in the title race. Regardless, Mikel Arteta made sure to praise his players for still managing to finish second and not suffer a complete capitulation.
Speaking to the Emirates crowd following the Newcastle win, Arteta said: I know what these players have been through, this staff, this season. Any other club in this position will finish in a position you cannot even dream of, so please say thank you to the players, say thank you to the staff and thank you to all of you for your support."
"We need to recognise what we’ve done, I’ve seen other teams with one or two injuries finish fifth, eighth, 16th, 17th."
Arteta later denied referring to Manchester United and Tottenham, but it's definitely a great similarity to make. Many had predicted those two sides to achieve more than Arsenal this season and to see how they have dealt with multiple problems compared to Arteta's side, there's no denying who did so better.
United and Spurs act as definitive examples of how badly injuries can affect teams, but their consistently poor performances have also played a huge part. Arsenal on the other hand dealt brilliantly with the constant problems they faced and still managed to secure Champions League football and a second-place finish.
Fans will always be disappointed with a failure to win silverware and all I wanted was to see Arsenal lift a trophy. That unfortunately didn't happen and while finishing second for a third consecutive season does not win you anything, the players' efforts this season must be applauded as they and their manager did well to fight through the constant battles with injuries.