Mikel Arteta Aims for Back-to-Back Premier League Titles with Arsenal
Mikel Arteta has not bothered with modest targets. Fresh from ending Arsenal’s 22-year wait for a league title, he has gone straight for the next barrier: doing what no manager has ever done at the club – winning the Premier League back to back.
Only Sir Alex Ferguson, Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola have successfully defended the Premier League crown. Arteta wants his name on that list.
“I’m very excited. We already have some dreams about the competition again with the Community Shield. It’s a new season, new expectations,” he told talkSPORT, the words tumbling out like a manager already locked into May rather than August. “We have the opportunity to do something we haven't done before at this football club, to win it back to back and that is the ambition. It’s not personal, it’s the collective ambition that we have and the ambition of the club. It's a beautiful challenge.”
Life after Pep
This title defence will unfold in a very different Premier League. Guardiola, the man who set the tactical and competitive benchmark for a decade at Man City, has stepped away, leaving a void on the touchline and a shift in the league’s power map.
For Arteta, who spent three formative years at Guardiola’s side in Manchester before taking over at Arsenal, that absence is more than a headline.
“It was different,” he admitted, reflecting on facing Enzo Maresca rather than his old mentor. “Obviously I know Enzo really well but obviously the relationship I built with Pep when we were with each other. The amount of headaches and sweats he has provided to me over the last six or seven years to try to catch their level. He’s been an absolute inspiration, he's left a mark on this league forever and he made all of us better.”
Guardiola may have gone, but his shadow still stretches across the league – and across Arsenal’s ambitions. Arteta’s drive to elevate Arsenal to that relentless City standard has shaped almost every decision of his tenure. Now he has the trophy in his hands, he wants to prove it was no one-off.
Big money, bigger decisions
Arsenal have already fired a serious shot in the transfer market. The £75 million signing of Bruno Guimaraes is a statement of intent from a club that no longer feels like an outsider looking in.
But the squad is not settled yet.
Leandro Trossard’s departure has opened a gap in the forward line. Gabriel Martinelli’s long-term future still hovers in the background. Those uncertainties have pushed Arsenal into the market for attacking reinforcements, with the club linked to several high-profile options, including Bradley Barcola, who has also attracted interest from Liverpool.
Arteta, as ever in public, kept his cards close to his chest, but he did not disguise the club’s readiness to strike if the right player becomes available.
“When we show ambition at the club it has to come from the very top and I think the ownership has been very supportive with everything we are doing at the club,” he said. “The motivation is always there to be better. If we can identify the talent to make us better then we have to do it but we have to focus on what we have in house to make sure they evolve, grow and be better.”
That balance – between spending big and backing the core that finally toppled City – will define Arsenal’s summer. One wrong move can stall momentum; one right one can turn a title win into an era.
Arteta knows how volatile the landscape is.
“You can see how crazy and unpredictable the league is. It's better not to talk too much, be prepared, be open and hopefully we can wrap up the transfer window in a really positive way.”
The message is clear: the talking stops now. Arsenal have climbed the mountain once. The real question is whether they can live up there.
