Mikel Arteta reveals the two ‘main reasons’ Liverpool beat Arsenal to the Premier League title

Mikel Arteta has revealed the two ‘main reasons’ he believes Arsenal fell short in the Premier League title race for the third year in a row.

The Gunners are on course for a third successive second-place finish in the Premier League after failing to keep pace with champions Liverpool.

Arsenal hoped to reel in Arne Slot’s Reds during the second-half of the season but have slipped 15 points behind the Anfield club with two games remaining.

With Arteta’s side also falling short in the Champions League and both domestic cup competitions, Arsenal have now gone five years without a trophy.

Arsenal play their final home game of the season on Sunday as Newcastle United visit the Emirates Stadium and Arteta admits back in August he imagined lifting the trophy following this fixture.

‘At the start of the season, if I had to visualise that moment, it would be playing the last home game on the final day and lifting the Premier League,’ he told Sky Sports. ‘That’s what I had in my head.

‘Now, with everything we’ve gone through in the last 11 months, I think we can all hold our heads up but still have that pain in the tummy, because that’s what we want to achieve.’

That of course will not be the case and Arteta feels ‘red cards and injuries’ are the two ‘main reasons’ for Arsenal failing to keep pace with Liverpool.

Arsenal have had six players sent off this season – the most in the Premier League – while they have also endured more injuries than any other top-flight rival.

The likes of Kai Havertz, Gabriel Jesus, Bukayo Saka and Gabriel have all been absent for significant periods.

Asked what the main reasons for not achieving their aims this season were, Arteta said: ‘Red cards and injuries, for sure.

‘But without that, we don’t know what would have happened. Would we have been much closer? For me, the answer is without a question, yes.

‘Because of what we have been producing and the performances that we had. But we’re going to have to do something else [next season] because the bar will be raised.

‘And when you look at the points that we’ve had in the last three seasons, the consistency of not winning a title is very rare.

‘So we are very close, close in the probability so much, we have to continue to be there and be better.’

Pressed on Arsenal’s failed title bid, Arteta added: ‘One number is availability. Without that one, you have no chance to win anything.

‘There are some other statistics that are very, very relevant to winning football matches – not just dominate them, but to win them.

‘But we are very clear on what brings success to us and what we have to do, then work on them, be more efficient and be better.

‘The other one is the capacity to change games every three days and during the match – that’s where we have a big margin.’

Arteta will expect to be backed in the upcoming transfer window and is believed to want to sign a new striker, central midfielder and winger this summer.

‘We need that, for sure,’ he said about summer signings.

‘With the numbers that we started the season and [the numbers] to provide for next season, with the demands we’re going to have and especially with the players that we have who are coming through long-term surgeries, it’s very unrealistic [to deliver trophies].

‘We know that, we have to address that and we’re going to do everything we can to improve it.

‘Especially because we are going to lose quite a lot of players. There are players out of contract, there are players who have come here on loan.

‘So the squad becomes really thin on top of the injuries that we have. We know we have that duty, that necessity and we have players in the academy that can help. Great, but if not we know what we have to do.’

After facing in-form Newcastle on Sunday, Arsenal conclude the 2024-25 campaign against bottom-placed Southampton on the final day of the season.

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