Pep Guardiola saaid that Arsenal pushed Man City to another level this season. City claimed their fourth consecutive Premier League title, the first team to do that in premier League history after beating West Ham 3-1 on the final day to finish on 91 points.
Arsenal were able to beat Everton after going behind, but they were two points behind City when all was said and done. Arsenal were second to City last season too, but it felt like Arsenal found an extra gear this year and pished City harder, right up to the end.
“Before it was Liverpool who pushed us to our limits. Now it’s been Arsenal in these last two seasons, especially this one. It’s been an incredible season,” said Pep after the final whistle.
It felt like Arsenal couldn’t have done much more in the end, with Arteta even admitting they had been performing at their best level across every index since December, but it wasn’t enough to match City’s level. Arteta said he was proud of his team and they did close the gap from 5 points last season to just 2 this season, but you know the main emotion is heartache at missing out on the trophy.
Elsewhere Man Utd suffered their worst season in the Premier League era, finishing 8th in the table despite winning on the final day. Its well know and often talked about but it does seem like United have a lot of work today, but they have been in a rebuilding phase for many seasons now and the fans are starting to lose patience when it feels like backwards steps are being taken.
When it comes to Chelsea, you could see that it took a long time for them to take some control of the games they were playing. Especially at the end of the season, I started to see a team that would not be sitting down when they were 1-0 up but wanted to push on and finish games off.
I don’t think the team is where they are supposed to be but I said at the beginning of the season that the goal should be European football, but not the Champions League. The spending was questioned, but we have to remember in any business or football team when you change people in key positions it will take some time for the storm to settle.
Chelsea won the last few games but are still building and settling the storm, and I’m sure they will start better next season. The players know each other better and now they should do better again, going from 12th one season to 6th the next and qualifying for the Conference League. Some people would aim for the title but let’s not skip the target of qualifying for UCL because there are a lot of great teams going for that. #mmlove