What a furious Arteta told Arsenal players to do if they wanted to be successful & overtake Man City | OneFootball

Arsenal have now lost back-to-back Premier League titles to Manchester City after finishing two points behind the champions at the end of the season.

Manager Mikel Arteta was critical of his players’ attitude after they blew the title last term, but was more relaxed on the run-in this season, publicly supporting his players after significant defeats.

However, the Arsenal boss was always passionate about winning behind closed doors, blasting his players after they lost 1-0 against FC Porto in the Champions League round-of-16 first leg in February.

According to The Times, Arteta told his players they could not afford to drop their standards and had to be footballers, not wannabe stars, if they wanted to be successful and overtake Man City.

Arsenal responded in the second leg at Emirates Stadium the following month, winning on penalties after securing a 1-0 victory and drawing themselves level on aggregate.

The Gunners lost just twice across all competitions during the rest of the season, but those defeats eventually proved costly.

Arsenal lost 2-0 to Aston Villa at Emirates in mid-April before suffering a 1-0 defeat at Bayern Munich to exit the Champions League quarter-finals three days later.

The defeat to Villa was their fifth league loss of the campaign, which allowed Man City to overtake them in the table.

Arteta’s speech after the Porto game impacted the players, who were almost perfect from that moment.

However, they have to become even better next season if they are to overtake Man City, and their manager will ensure he gets the best out of them.