Mikel tells club next season hinges on ‘crucial summer’

NOTTM FOREST V ARSENAL 5.30PM, SKY SPORTS

ARSENAL manager Mikel Arteta has told the board it is “crucial” they get it right this summer if his side are to build on their title challenge.

Failure to beat Nottingham Forest today will mean Manchester City are champions – otherwise Pep Guardiola’s side can secure the honours by beating Chelsea tomorrow.

But Arteta feels his squad is too small to compete next season with the Champions League to navigate as well and the board must make the right signings.

“We cannot compete in the league and Champions League at the level that we want to, no,” said Arteta, right. “We didn’t have the capacity to do that as well with the Europa League so it’s part of that evolution.

“To go to the next level, it is going to be a crucial summer for us. First of all to make sure that we maintain everything that we have at the club right now – the expectations, the enthusiasm and the energy. It’s not only about signing players. It’s about resources and staff and improving certain things that can be done better or more efficiently or smarter.”

A 150-year-old olive tree growing outside Arteta’s office is so evocative of the club’s

By strength that he has got a small replica potted up to take into team meetings.

“It is an olive tree that is a similar age to the club,” he said. “We have to look after those roots every day, make sure they don’t get poisoned and remain in the right condition.”

Arteta revealed he had received 122 messages of support after Arsenal’s title chase was effectively ended with the 3-0 defeat by Brighton last Sunday.

He said: “Sometimes you go in bed and hide under the covers for

12 hours and don’t speak to anybody. Sometimes you need your wife and kids around you, your family, your dog.”

Arteta has even gone to the lengths of getting a dog for his Arsenal family. A year-old labrador named Win has the freedom of the training ground and has been adopted as the club’s unofficial mascot.