Mikel Arteta, the manager of Arsenal, said on Friday that the club would make an effort to compete for all of the available trophies in the next season. The Premier League runners-up will open their 2023-24 campaign against Manchester City, the triple champions, in the Community Shield.
The relentlessness of City, who had won three straight top-flight crowns before claiming their first Champions League triumph in June, was the undoing of Arsenal’s title defense attempt during the previous season.
Arsenal had an eight-point lead over City until the middle of March, but City overtook them at the end of April. Arsenal will now attempt to seek retribution against City in the customary season-opening match for the Premier League, which will take place on Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
Arteta told the press, “Very excited to play a final to win a trophy, and we are playing against the team to beat,” and he was very enthusiastic about it.
“This is exactly what we desire (a new era for Arsenal), which is to compete for each and every prize. This must first be shown. What we accomplished the previous year was not good enough to win the major award; thus, we need to improve.
“We have to work hard to keep the same high level for them (the fans),”
However, Arteta’s head-to-head record versus City does not assist his case. In the nine matches in which he has competed against a City team in his capacity as a coach, the Spaniard has lost eight of those matches, with the one victory coming in the FA Cup semifinal in 2020.
Only one team in the last ten years has been able to raise the Premier League trophy after also having won the Community Shield, and that team was City in 2018.