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Louise Thomas

Editor

Mikel Arteta has challenged Arsenal to improve once again this season, but sensed the motivation in his players during a club gathering on the night Manchester City clinched the Premier League title.

Arsenal enjoyed a record-breaking 2023/24 campaign, winning more games than ever before in the division and yet missed out on silverware to Pep Guardiola’s side by two points.

The title race went to the final day and City won a fourth consecutive league crown but Arsenal staff, including co-chair Josh Kroenke, players and their families gathered on the same night at a venue in central London to reflect on the near-miss and a burning desire to go one better was already evident.

Asked what it would take to win the title, Arteta said: “Break more of those records again, earn more points, for sure.

“[89 points] won’t be enough. With the level we are competing with and every season is getting harder, we are going to have to improve again.

“I don’t know what perfect is but it has to be very close to the numbers that we’ve seen in recent years.

“We had a gathering together with all the club players and the players were saying to me, ‘we’re going to be better, we’re going to do it, we want more’. They are the ones driving that ambition, so that’s always positive.

“Everybody was talking about the same thing, that we are not going to stop here and that we want much more.

“We know the things that we can still do better and how the players can still evolve. How we have evolved as a club is huge as well.

“How we feel playing at Emirates Stadium is another one. Those margins are huge and we have to really, really use them.

“Whether it is pain, whether there are experiences, whether there are moments really as well where you have to accept that somebody else has been better.

“This is sport and you want to get to where you aren’t at the moment. That as well is really inspiring.

“It’s like you’re trying to climb the highest mountain, the most difficult leap in the world and you’re surrounded by people trying to achieve the same ambition. We’re certainly gonna try.”

Arsenal begin the campaign at home to Wolves on Saturday and while new signing Riccardo Calafiori could be involved, Arteta will be without Takehiro Tomiyasu (knee).

The Gunners remain active in the transfer market, but Arteta was tight-lipped on reported target Mikel Merino of Real Sociedad.

“You know that I cannot talk about any other player,” he insisted.

“After the season we had two objectives. The main one and the most important one is to make sure that we still are very much in love with our players and find ways to improve them.

“Then ok, if there are certain opportunities in the market to improve the squad we have to look at that.

“While the market is open, things can happen. That’s always a possibility.”

PA

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