Arsenal ended 2025 at the top of the Premier League table. Most recently, they had a 4-1 victory over Aston Villa, thereby 4 points ahead of Man City. The next challenge for Mikel Arteta's team is Bournemouth.
With only five months left in the season, Mikel Arteta believes that his team is showing the necessary desire to achieve the goal in 2026.
He said: "That's what players show every day in training sessions or every match. You can see the desire, the energy they put in, how much they want to win, and that's what we need. There are still five months left, let's just take each step, enjoy this process and aim for the goal.
The mood of the whole team is very good, clearly so, after the match against a really strong opponent, playing and winning in the way we did is great. Now we focus on the match against Bournemouth, we know this will be a difficult match and everyone will put in all their strength”.
Last season, Bournemouth defeated Arsenal 2-0 at Vitality Stadium when William Saliba was early red-carded. The Gunners also lost to Bournemouth 1-2 at home at Emirates in May 2025.
I know those were two very different matches. Obviously, the match where Saliba was suddenly sent off until the 30th minute, then everything was completely different and we also controlled the match, had some chances but ultimately lost. And at home, it was a performance that was initially very dominant but ultimately ended badly for us.
So, there is a lot for us to learn, and I am extremely respectful of Bournemouth. I know Andoni Iraola very well and what he is doing, I think that is amazing. I have watched all the matches they have played this season, especially against top teams. They caused a lot of difficulties for opponents, but did not get good results. That is hard to understand," Arteta emphasized.
After half a season, Arsenal has 45 points after 19 matches. When asked about the race for the championship, Mikel Arteta said there is still a long way to go before the season ends at the end of May 2026.
He said: "Arsenal is at the top of the table and we are really satisfied with this position. Everything can always be better. It is clear that there are things to improve and the only thing we know is that we always have to face the next match and we know that defeating any opponent will be very difficult.
Currently it is still early January, so we still have five months left and a lot of work to do.
The Bournemouth vs Arsenal match will take place at 0:30 on January 4.
