Arteta admits he knew before season started that his squad wasn’t good enough

MIKEL ARTETA admits his Arsenal squad was too small to challenge Liverpool for the Prem title.

But the Gunners boss promised fans a major summer spending spree after a fifth season without delivering silverware

Arsenal are set to sign Real Sociedad midfielder Martin Zubimendi, a new No 9 - with Sporting Lisbon’s Viktor Gyokeres and Leipzig’s Benjamin Sesko the prime candidates - and are targeting a massive push for Bilbao’s left-sided Spain star Nico Williams.

Boss Arteta said: “There are a lot of factors. We knew from the beginning of the season that our squad was super short.

“Being super short we had some players that had a high probability of getting injured, because that’s what they had in the last few seasons.

“So we knew that and we cannot do anything about it.

"But we will do everything that we can to improve the team and especially improve the players that we already have.

“That is not something we have just started to talk about now. If we were only having those meetings now we would be doing it very late.

“Whatever the market offers to give us a better chance to win for sure we will try to do it.

“Over the season there are many things you need to go your way.

“In the clinical moments, does the ball hit the post and come out, or go in? That's the fine margins.

“What we have to try to do is to amplify the margins. The bigger the margins are, even if those things happen, then it will be very difficult for the opposition.

“We have to do it our way. We have to be authentic with ourselves and what we believe, what we can do and what we've been doing. That's it.”

The impact of absences has been evident for Arsenal throughout the campaign.

Only William Saliba and Declan Rice have started more than 30 Prem games this season, with another quartet - Jurrien Timber, Thomas Partey, Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard over the 30-mark in total league appearances.

By contrast, Virgil van Dijk, Ryan Gravenberch and Mo Salah have started 104 out of 105 times between them, with another seven players having featured 30 or more times.

Arteta agreed: “That's a big thing to win trophies, you know, and they did that extremely well.

“They managed to maintain that consistency, that level of players, a system, a coach, a stadium that has created again, and consistently, an incredible atmosphere for them.

“So you need a lot of ingredients or you don't win the Premier League.

“That's the difficulty of it, and it's true that this season we never found that consistently because of the issues that we had.
“I don't want to use it as an excuse.

“We have the best League in the world, yes? We all agree.

“But we were the only team from this League on the park in the semi-finals of the Champions League. That’s the level.”

Arteta dismissed any interest in the suggestion that, if they win the Europa League, Spurs might argue they have had a more successful season despite flirting with the drop zone.

He joked: “I am only looking at my own garden.”

But it is the Liverpool garden that he will be looking at this afternoon and Arteta conceded: “What Arne did was very intelligent.

“He had all the platform - a team that has been competing and winning trophies throughout the last 10 years. So he had to do nothing new.

“He's added his values, and he maintained a lot of the things. He's obviously given his fingerprints to a lot of things that are very, very good as well.

“The most important thing is he got the best out of the players.

“And the players that have to make the difference, they were there constantly, making the difference for them. That's capital to win any major trophy.

“But we want to have the sort of celebrations they are having now, big-time. Watching that will show that we have not won a competition we wanted to win.

“I really want it because that is what this club needs and has been so close to achieving.

“Now we need to make it happen. We have talked about it many times and will continue for sure with the same drive - or more - until we achieve it.”