Mikel Arteta has said Arsenal “will not bottle” the final two Premier League games as Manchester City close in on the title.
Arsenal travel to Nottingham Forest on Saturday knowing defeat would mean City are crowned champions for the fifth time in six seasons.
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Arsenal held an eight-point lead earlier in the campaign but their recent run of two wins from seven matches led to accusations Arteta and his players have struggled to cope with the pressure of the run-in as City surged clear at the top.
Asked if they will be title contenders on an annual basis after the progress they have made, Arteta said: “We have shown this season. We’re still there, with two games to go we can still be champions against probably the best team in Premier League history.
“For 10 months we’re still there. There’s two games still to go and we’re not going to bottle that for sure. What happens next season will depend on what we do how, we evolve and how we start. That prediction is very difficult to do today.”
Arteta confirmed Gabriel Martinelli and Oleksandr Zinchenko will not play again this season after suffering ankle and calf injuries respectively.
“Gabi is a pretty nasty injury, we need to assess in the next week how long he’ll be out for, but it will be at least weeks,” Arteta added. “With Alex it’s a calf issue and he won’t be available to play the next two games.”
With Champions League qualification secured, Arteta is already eyeing further changes to his squad this summer which he admitted currently does not possess the requisite strength in depth to compete on multiple fronts.
“At the level that we want, no [we don’t have the depth],” he said. “We didn’t have the capacity to do that as well with the Europa League so it’s part of that evolution.
“We have made a lot of good steps and strong steps in that journey and we have to continue. That never ends. We want to be better and the rest will be better, then the margins will be higher and we have to start to live with those standards and improve and be smarter.
“That doesn’t mean only signing players. It’s to improve our own players. There are players that we haven’t had the best out of them this season. There are a few players where they haven’t had the minutes or the performances and we have to seek as well for those players to give us a different edge.
“It’s not only about signing players. It’s about resources and staff and improving certain things that can be done better or more efficiently or smarter.”
