Following his team’s victory over Manchester United on Sunday, Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, declined to comment on the notion that the Gunners are now the favourites to win the Premier League championship this season.
Prior to falling behind themselves, Arsenal overcame a United team that had only been defeated once in all competitions since early October. However, Eddie Nketiah scored again in the dying seconds to secure a 3-2 victory.
With a game yet to play, the outcome puts Arteta’s club five points ahead of second-place Manchester City with half the season still to play. Additionally, they have only lost once all season in the Premier League and have displayed great mental toughness to achieve victories.
When questioned about being referred to be championship favourites, Arteta said he had no opinion. However, the Spaniard seems to be aware that others are openly stating it because he refers to it as “perception.”
“I don’t have an opinion, it can be a perception,” he commented, via Arsenal.com.
“I know my team so well. I know where we are, I know we are here and I know where we want to be, and we are still far from that. I know the level of the other teams, especially one that has won everything in the last five or six years, and we are not there yet.”
Regardless of your perspective, Arsenal hasn’t been in this situation for 15 years. In contrast, the ‘Invincibles’ generation of the 2003–04 season is still the last Gunners team to win the Premier League championship. Their last significant title challenge came in 2007–08, a long time ago.
“Extraordinary, I would say!” Arteta said of the first half of the season.
“It doesn’t get much better than that, that’s the reality. I think we deserve the points that we have, I think we have played well enough to win most of the matches, but the reality as well is that we still have a lot of things that we can get much better at, attacking and defending in transitions, in set-pieces and that’s the aim.”
