Mikel Arteta will be desperate for his Arsenal side to sustain their momentum from this season going into the next few campaigns, with the north London outfit back competing for titles once again. The Gunners have been top of the Premier League for the majority of the year, but the upper hand in proceedings lay with Manchester City.
There's still some hope left for Arsenal, who will likely have to win their remaining three fixtures and hope for some help elsewhere to deny City. The chances are slim, but all in all the season has shown clear progress for the club, who at the very least have booked a return to the Champions League.
“We are still not satisfied, still upset and we want more,” Arteta admitted earlier this campaign when discussing the title picture. “If we want the club to be consistently with the best, that’s the mentality we need.”
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With a long season coming to a close, Pep Guardiola may be hopeful that next time around, the Gunners aren't quite as destructive as they have been. The added task of fighting on all fronts once again may change the dynamic from a squad that's already put plenty into this campaign.
However, Arteta has suggested his side have far more that they can offer, which should serve as a scary warning to Guardiola about the next few years. The Spaniard said in his pre-Brighton press conference: "We are still very far. We can be much, much, much better at a lot of things still. Huge margins.
"We can be much better in our build-up, attacking man-to-man situations, attacking open spaces, defending deep, set pieces, we have huge margins to do in terms of game management, a lot of things we can do still much better. We can be more ruthless to kill games. It's a lot of things that we have to seek for improvement because we don't have a single player who has reached his peak. Not one.
"And when that happens we as coaches have to be curious to understand: what can we do to get them better? And then generate those connections that I think we've done pretty well and keep developing them so they empower each other and they can take the game to a different level still.
"There are certain players as well that have to go to a different level in terms of their leadership, in terms of what they are able to transmit to the group and the responsibility and the accountability they have to take for what happens here every single day, and the demands and standards we want at the club. There is a lot to do."
While the suggestion that the current players can progress further for years to come is enough to send fear into rivals, the summer offers a chance for Arsenal to strengthen further. With the side performing at their best for years and back in the Champions League, they may finally be able to offer the most attractive offer in the league and get the calibre of player needed to get a firm title push over the line.
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