Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, believes that the club is edging closer to winning the Premier League title.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has expressed “no regrets” after narrowly missing out on the Premier League title to Manchester City last season. Despite finishing two points behind City, Arteta remains positive about his team’s performance.

In an interview with CNN, Arteta stated, “You look at moments in the season, but this season’s been almost perfect. To make the amount of points that we made – both us and City – in this competitive league. We cannot compare this league to what happened two years ago, three years ago, five years ago.”

Arteta believes that the level of the league has evolved and now it’s time for Arsenal to recharge and come back stronger next season. The Gunners have not won the domestic title since the 2003/04 campaign under Arsene Wenger’s leadership.

Despite falling short, Arteta is confident that his team is closing the gap on City. He said, “We have to better them. We are closer. When you see all the metrics we are right there. We’ve been the best team in the league in almost every metric.”

However, Arteta acknowledged that there is a margin that Arsenal didn’t control well enough, resulting in City winning the league. He sees this as a challenge and an opportunity to improve. He stated, “It’s very challenging but it’s very inspiring to have a team with such quality and consistency over the last seven, nine years, to try to be better than them. And our focus is, how can we improve.”

Arteta also hinted that Arsenal may not have a big summer of spending like last year. Instead, the focus will be on developing the current squad and making them more competitive and consistent. He explained, “Our focus has to be with what we have already in house. ‘How can we be better?’ There are margins and there are players that can still develop and be better, and that’s the objective that we have.”

The ambition to win trophies is evident within the club, and Arteta believes that the next step for Arsenal is to start lifting trophies. He concluded, “The players, the staff. You can sense it. They want much more. They want to start lifting trophies, and that’s the next step.”