With the 2022/23 season in its final few days, Mikel Arteta has been reflecting on a campaign filled with huge positives, and assessing what needs to happen over the summer.

Despite a tough few weeks that ultimately saw Manchester City overhaul us at the top of the table to win their third title in succession, Mikel has been analysing the whole season and feels that the phenomenal progress we have made on and off the pitch is something he didn’t fully expect when we kicked off against Crystal Palace back in August.

He believes achieving our pre-season goal of a top-four return with over a month of the season to spare was a huge highlight, as was watching our youthful side improve as players and as a team, but he still can’t yet shrug off the regret of not quite stopping his former club from getting their hands on the trophy once again.

Weighing up the last 10 months, he said: “We have achieved reaching the Champions League with five or six games to go and we’ve finished second. I think we have developed a lot of players and taken them to a very different stage of their careers and they have contributed to the team exceptionally well. We have created and developed a huge relationship with our fanbase and created something special around the team.

“So if I look at it that way, there are a lot of positives to take from the season, probably more than was expected with the capacity, ability and resources the team had. But, as well we spent 248 days on top of the Premier League, and at the end, we didn’t have enough, or show enough, to win it.”