Arteta explains why Arsenal are more dangerous ahead of the Champions League final

With everything set for Arsenal’s players and staff to gather at the Sobha Realty Training Centre and watch Bournemouth vs. Manchester City together, just as the squad had requested, Mikel Arteta (San Sebastián, 1982) decided to leave.

“I felt something.”

Some have complained that the penultimate weekend of the 2025-26 Premier League season was not played simultaneously. That Arsenal did not celebrate winning the title with their fans at Emirates Stadium after ending a 22-year wait.

But there was a reason for everything.

Had Pep Guardiola, who was quick to congratulate his former assistant, not slipped up while Arteta was standing in his backyard, his son would never have run through the garden and told him:

“Dad, we’re Premier League champions.”

Arsenal did it their way

Arteta is relieved and, above all, happy.

You could see it and hear it during his exclusive conversation with AS and two other Spanish outlets in his office at Arsenal’s training ground. The emotion in his words, and even more so in his eyes, reflected just how much work and sacrifice, both from him and his family, went into winning the Premier League title.

Even so, as his midfielder Martín Zubimendi put it, “sometimes it feels like you have to win a trophy before people give you all the credit you deserve.”

If the six-year wait was worth it, Arteta says, it is because “we did it our way.”

But Arsenal’s season is far from over.

“We can write a new chapter in Arsenal’s history,” Arteta told this newspaper.

Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka, David Raya, Mikel Merino, William Saliba, Martín Zubimendi and the rest of a group already nicknamed “The Unforgettable Ones” are now one game away from securing their place in club folklore.

Arsenal one game away from history

Playing just the second Champions League final in Arsenal’s history against Luis Enrique’s PSG, now that the burden of ending the club’s Premier League drought has been lifted, is an opportunity they have no intention of wasting.

As an ecstatic Arteta declared on Sunday:

“Now we’re going after the big one.”

Why is this the year Arsenal finally won the Premier League, and not 2023, 2024 or 2025, when the club finished runner-up three straight times?

Because somebody up there decided the stars would align this year.[laughs].

In previous years we came very close, but something was always missing. This year, things happened when they needed to happen. There’s not much more to explain.

Things felt different from the beginning. The feeling around the group, because of the type of players we had, was different from previous years, although our consistency was very similar.

How do you convince players year after year that this will be the season?

From day one, when we brought everyone together.

The new signings, the players who had already been here for years, everyone.

We had to sit down and tell them: “This is the direction we’re going. If each one of us believes in it, if everyone looks out for the person next to them and embraces their role, we’re going to be very close.”

I can’t promise them we’ll do it because so many things are outside our control. But I was convinced we would be close.

In the end, they made it happen.

A big part of my job has been making them feel like they’re the best. There were moments of doubt, after a draw, after a defeat, when rivals started closing the gap.

I spent a huge amount of energy making them feel like the best players in the world.

Drawing on energy, positivity and joy. Making them feel good and, at times, enjoy themselves much more than focusing on tactics.

“It was the longest hour and a half of my life...”

Mikel Arteta

What was your last day like before winning the Premier League?

We had a normal training session throughout the day with the players who hadn’t featured much against Burnley. I was working on Crystal Palace, analyzing everything. We had our meetings, match preparation, game plan... and then there was an hour left.

I didn’t know what to do. I felt strange.

I thought: “Wow, this is such an important day...”

Because if you have to go to Crystal Palace on the final day, you don’t know how things are going to turn out.

I went upstairs 20 minutes before the Bournemouth-Manchester City game started. Everything was already set up. The players had asked me the day before if we could all watch the game together here, with the staff and me present.

But when I got up there and saw everything ready, I felt it.

“They’re not going to experience this the way they want because I’m not in that frame of mind.”

It was their moment.

So I went back downstairs, found Martin (Ødegaard) and said: “Forgive me, but I’m going home. When this is over, we’ll talk.”

I got in the car and drove home.

Time passed and I didn’t even want to look at my phone.

I got home, my kids were there watching the game, I gave them a kiss from a distance, and then I went straight outside.

I started a fire in the outdoor fireplace, got the barbecue ready, and it was the longest hour and a half of my life... [laughs].

I could hear things from inside. I’d glance over. Gabriel Heinze and Germán were there with me, and we’d just look at each other.

Then suddenly the garden door opened and my oldest son came running out.

He had this look on his face, this huge smile, tears in his eyes, and he said:

“Dad, we’re Premier League champions.”

Then my other two children came out, along with my wife.

It was an incredible moment.

Was the six-year wait worth it?

Every second of it.

What made it special was the journey.

Today I picked up that trophy and...

[Mikel Arteta gets up from his chair and takes from the wall of his office the cardboard replica of the Premier League trophy that Arsenal’s players posed with during the celebrations at the training ground.]

...this is very important [pointing at the trophy].

But this is even more important.

[He turns the replica around. On the back is a handwritten message inside a heart: “Champions of Life.”]

We did this with good people.

They’ve shown values, courage, honesty, resilience.

They’ve shown the ability, when someone tries to knock you down...

[shakes his head]

...to say, “No, we’re moving forward.”

Unity.

And also the ability to feel vulnerable at times.

Many times I’ve asked myself:

“Am I capable of doing this? Am I the right person to lead these players, to guide them and convince them they can win?”

You don’t get the answer to that question until you actually do it.

What makes me most proud is that we did it our way.

The way we felt it.

All together.

Making everyone feel part of it.

There wasn’t one individual doing something different from everyone else. This was something we achieved collectively.

That’s what makes me proudest of all.

Since Arsenal beat Atlético Madrid, there has been a lot of talk about the team being defensive...

Don’t pay attention to it!

Don’t ask me about that [laughs], otherwise it just gets bigger and bigger.

But what do you think about it?

I’ve already said it.

I respect all opinions, and I think it’s your choice where you place them.

How important you make them.

Which shelf you put them on.

Whether you put them away and forget about them.

Some opinions you burn.

Others you use because they make you reflect and think.

There’s room for all of it.

If one thing isn’t enough for us, my job isn’t to settle for that.

My job is to say:

“I’m going to look for other solutions. I’m going to innovate. I’m going to find another way, a different approach from what we’ve done before, but we’re going to end up winning.”

I think that has been the secret.

Did you recognize that years ago and deliberately create a style that went against what you had done previously?

No, because everything complements everything else.

There are moments for everything.

But we have to be very clear about one thing.

With the injuries we’ve had, if I put all of that into a machine and ask for the probability of winning the Premier League, it would probably tell me 2%.

But I’m not going to accept that.

So we had to find other solutions with the qualities and resources we had available and still remain competitive while playing more than 60 games at this level and under this amount of pressure.

That’s the biggest reward we have as a team.

Luis Enrique called you “Mikelito” and spoke about you very affectionately. What do you remember about him when you first met him as a player, and how do you view him as a coach today?

I remember him very fondly.

Above all because of the way he treated young players.

At every level.

I see a lot of myself in what he was as a player.

And as a coach, when you talk about someone who had the personality, leadership and conviction to go his own way, despite all the noise around him, remain true to himself and then win the way he has won...

He’s an example for everyone.

Martín Zubimendi recently said that after so many years rebuilding the club, it’s unfair to judge you only by trophies. But this season you could complete a historic double by winning both the Premier League and the Champions League...

First there’s the Premier League because we hadn’t won it in 22 years.

Then there’s the Champions League because this club has never won it.

If we can achieve that, then obviously we’ll write a completely new chapter in Arsenal’s history.

We must use the Premier as a tsunami of hope, emotion and hunger to win the Champions

Mikel Arteta

How important is it to arrive in Budapest already as Premier League champions?

There’s incredible joy and satisfaction.

But there’s also relief.

It feels like a weight has been lifted.

The feeling of:

“We did it. We’ve got that now.”

We need to use that as a tsunami of excitement, emotion and hunger to go and win the Champions League.

Does it work in your favor?

Absolutely.

It’s going to give us tremendous energy, confidence and clarity.

Martín Zubimendi has been one of your key players and one of your most-used players, but lately he hasn’t been starting. Is that because the player replacing him offers something different, or because Zubimendi is physically tired?

No, the season Zubi has had has been exceptional.

I could give you a thousand examples of top players who arrived in this league and compare their first seasons with what Zubi has done.

It’s been outstanding.

It’s also true that he’s played more games than ever before in his career.

At one point that put him in a difficult situation.

It was a difficult decision, but for certain matches I felt another teammate could help us in a different way.

We took him out of the lineup to give him some breathing room, some oxygen.

Now we have vital games coming up and we’re going to need him.

Absolutely.

What went through your mind when you saw the celebrations in the streets, at Emirates Stadium, and the reception the players received at 5 a.m.? Did you expect anything like that?

You can’t imagine it.

I get goosebumps just talking about it.

All those moments when you ask yourself:

“Is all of this really worth it?”

All those hours.

All the times you tried and fell short.

Then you see a moment like that and...

I’d do it another 10,000 times if I had to.

Seeing so many people so happy and so proud is beautiful.

We have the best job in the world.

I told the players:

“The fact that a ball can connect all those emotions, regardless of culture, beliefs, values or where you are in the world... it’s incredible.”

That’s magic.

If there is one person who deserves this more than anyone, it’s my wife

Mikel Arteta

Have you sacrificed a lot personally to achieve this?

I’ve tried to balance it all, but there’s a huge cost.

And if there’s one person who deserves more credit than anyone else, it’s my wife.

What she has done for me and for our children is beyond words.

Because I’m not there.

[Arteta becomes emotional.]

And when I am there, many times I’m not really there.

You’re physically present, but you’re not truly present.

She’s the one who has kept me balanced.

The one who allows me to come home from the daily storm and suddenly feel like I’m on a beach, in the sunshine, with my children happy around me.

That’s incredible.

And finally, Mikel. If it were up to you this summer, David Raya would be Spain’s goalkeeper, Cristhian Mosquera would be at right back, Martín Zubimendi would be in midfield... How do you see them ahead of this summer’s World Cup, and what are Spain’s chances?

[Laughs]

I’m incredibly proud that they’re there.

If it were up to me, of course they’d play every minute.

But what makes me proudest is that, regardless of the role Luis (de la Fuente) gives them, I’m 100 percent convinced that whenever they’re needed and whatever is asked of them, they’ll deliver.

They’re all special players.

So hopefully we can do it.

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