It’s only Gunner get tougher for Arteta’s men admits Xhaka
GRANIT XHAKA has warned it will be even tougher for Arsenal to win the Premier League next season.
As the dust settled on a title race that eventually went against them the midfield enforcer said that while the club’s ambition had partially been satisfied, ultimately they had failed.
“We’ve played a great season but we have to keep going,” said Xhaka.
“We must take another forward step because it’s going to be much more difficult next season.We know that.
“The board and the coach will decide what’s going to happen but we need to be ready for anything.”
Only time will tell whether next season includes Xhaka, who has been linked with a move to Bayer Leverkusen.
But asked whether manager Mikel Arteta is capable of guiding the Gunners, he said curtly: “Forget that question, he’s more than the right manager for this club.”
The 30-year-old did add that it was not all bad at the Emirates.
“People shouldn’t forget how we have worked for 11 months,” he said. “Even though we have lost the last two, you can’t forget the 11 months that we’ve worked.
“If someone had told us before the season that we would be here, I think everyone would have taken that.
“Our goal was to be back in the top four. Now, we are second. Of course, when you’re so close to the title, you want to win it.
“But we are where we are, we deserve to be where we are and let’s see what happens.”
Arteta paid tribute to Manchester City – where he spent three years as Pep Guardiola’s No.2 until 2019 – saying neither he nor his squad had been good enough.
And he suggested where the title had been won and lost, too.
The Gunners manager said: “We’re here to win. I want to win. I love winning and I love what everyone at the club does to win. When you don’t get there, it’s painful.We fell short.
“When you get to April and May you need 24 players there, available and fit – playing at their best and ready to go.
“For many reasons, we haven’t had that .There are key moments in the league. Key moments that define what happens. Then you lose momentum.
“It started with what happened at Anfield in the 90th minute. Then if you put chances away to make it 3-1 at West Ham, everything changes.
“We have conceded a lot of goals.We have given away 16 goals in those matches. That’s a lot.
“You cannot sustain that. In this league you have to be exceptional with everything because there are no margins.
“Your opponents don’t give you any margins. “We’ve extended them too much and that’s why we lost the league.”