Mikel Arteta spoke his mind in honest interview after Man City won Premier League | OneFootball

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta looked a broken man in his post-match interview, as his side lost 1-0 to Nottingham Forest and handed Manchester City the Premier League title.

Arsenal came into the tie knowing that they had to win to have any hope of catching Man City and rescuing their championship aspirations.

Forest, meanwhile, knew that if they could overcome the second best team in the division, their Premier League safety would be secured.

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And things could not have started any better for the hosts, who led after 19 minutes thanks to Taiwo Awoniyi’s cool finish.

Arsenal would dominate possession, controlling 82% of the ball throughout the 90 minutes, but they failed to fashion any real clear cut chances.

There were raucous celebrations following the final whistle, with the home crowd bouncing while players collapsed to the ground.

For Arsenal fans and players though, it was agony.

Arteta couldn’t hide his emotions

The result and performances over the last month have been especially hard to take given how good Arsenal had looked up until that point.

And speaking after the game, Gunners boss Arteta could not hide his frustration nor his sadness now that the title was out of reach.

The manager looked dejected in his post-match interview, and given where his side were going into April, it is no surprise to see him this way.

“First of all congratulations to Manchester City for winning the championship but it is a sad day for us after everything we’ve done in this season,” he said, paying tribute to his former side.

“Now we have to face the reality, today we gave a goal away and we were not good enough to break them down. We could play for three hours and we would not have done it."

Keen to take some of the focus away from individual performances though, Arteta then said the team as a whole had struggled.

He said: “It is a very sad day, we have been working for 11 months with that aim and have been on top for so many days. We have competed but we didn't have enough.”

Arsenal now have one final game to go, hosting Wolves at the Emirates for the final game of the season.

And for Arteta, the challenge now is to lift the players to give fans one last performance to cheer for.

“Now we must heal. It is very painful, I am extremely sad,” the Spanish coach said. “I have to find a way to lift the players and we have a difficult week ahead of us, and we have a huge responsibility.

“We play in front of our fans that have been incredible all season and they deserve a really good match.”