Mikel Arteta names the ‘best team in Premier League history’ after Arsenal win title

Mikel Arteta believes Arsenal overcame the ‘best team in Premier League history’ to win their first title since 2004.

The Gunners celebrated their first Premier League trophy for 22 years on Sunday after pipping Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City to the title.

After a tense and turbulent title race, Arsenal finished on 85 points – seven above a Man City side who won only two of their last five league games.

City threatened to go on another title-clinching run after beating Arsenal at the Etihad Stadium last month, but ultimately lacked the consistency of previous Guardiola teams.

Love football?

Our seven-day guide to the World Cup is live. 48 teams, 104 games, 1104 players – we’ve got everything you need to know. Sign up now.

Arteta still views Guardiola’s Man City as the ‘greatest team in the history of this competition’, however, and says his departing rival is ‘by far the best manager in the world’.

Guardiola was chasing a seventh Premier League title in his tenth and final season at Manchester City but had to settle for runners-up and two domestic cups.

‘We had to raise our level because you have opposition who are constantly asking that question of you,’ Arteta said after becoming the first Arsenal manager since Arsene Wenger to win the Premier League.

‘In my opinion, we had the best team in the history of this competition pushing us. In Pep, by far he is the best manager in the world.

‘To do it with those circumstances and in the manner we did it, it is all about the we in this team. I loved every minute of it.’

Arteta also revealed at one point he questioned whether he was capable of taking Arsenal to a long-awaited Premier League trophy.

‘There are doubts and the understanding that maybe you are not the right person,’ he added. ‘Thanks to God that we have done it!

‘I feel a lot of joy and a lot of relief as well. I can control a lot of things but there are things that are out of your hands, that’s when you need the best people around you.

‘Sometimes when you have doubts, it is those people that say we are going to do it and we are going to do it with you.

‘Everyone has played a part. We have an incredible ownership. We have been through tough times and that is when you really see people and get to know people.

‘They have incredible values. They know the sport better than any of us here. They have committed themselves to a project that we have delivered.’

Arsenal’s title celebrations will continue on Monday when the squad hold a trophy parade in north London.

Attentions will then turn to next weekend’s mouth-watering Champions League final against PSG.

For more stories like this, check our sport page.

Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

المصدر: Metro UK