Arsenal go into their final Premier League match of the season against Brighton at the Emirates with a slim chance of qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
Ninth-placed Arsenal is out of contention for Champions League and Europa League places and cannot finish higher than seventh on the final day of the season only if both Everton and local rivals Tottenham drop points in their respective last day fixtures, against Manchester City and Leicester City.
“No, it’s not where we want to be”: Arteta on Arsenal’s Premier League standings
While Arsenal can still qualify for the inaugural Europa Conference League if they beat Brighton, and Everton and Tottenham fail to win on the final day, Arteta accepts his first full season in charge has been less successful than he envisioned.
“This is not where we want to be,” Arteta admitted. “We haven’t won a title. In the league we have two more points than last season, but that is nowhere near what we wanted. The fact that we don’t have a title makes it really difficult to see more positives.”
With one game remaining, however, they have already amassed more points than last season, and Arteta believes he is making progress behind the scenes, “There are a lot of other things that have been done that were very necessary that were not related to results.
“It’s a lot of things from September to December that are contributing to that. There were a lot of things in that period.
“This is my job, to identify and to be very critical with myself and try to analyse why things happened. If it’s positive, let’s keep doing a lot of the good things that we are doing.”
“We have experienced in the last few years how tough being in the Europa League is with the amount of games and the short turnaround all the time in the Premier League.”
“There is a lot of history with teams involved in the Europa League, and the negative consequences that has in the Premier League positions. But we have tried to give it the best possible go, we came a little bit short, but this club has to be in Europe. Let’s try to finish as high as possible and then after we will determine, once we are involved, what the best way is to do it.”
Mikel Arteta confessed that a seventh place and securing qualification for the Europa Conference League cannot be classified as success but will try to give Arsenal fans something to cheer by finishing the season above rivals Tottenham. “Anything that is in our hands to make them happy and to help us to be in a better place today, it’s all positive,” said Arteta when asked about moving past Spurs on Sunday.
The 39-year-old manager revealed that he wants to keep the talks about the takeover on one side and rather focus on taking Arsenal back to their best next season. When asked whether the time had come to forget about Ek’s planned takeover, Arteta said: “I really hope so because I think it’s very clear where the owners are standing.
“For the benefit of the club, which I think is the only interest, we are aiming to get the unity and togetherness that we need to be back where we want.”
Up to 10,000 fans will be in attendance at the Emirates for Sunday’s match against Brighton with many set to voice their discontent at Stan and Josh Kroenke ‘s continued ownership of the club, after Dennis Bergkamp confirmed the Americans had rejected a second takeover bid from Spotify billionaire Daniel Ek.
