After Manchester City was held to a 1-1 draw by Bournemouth on May 20, Arsenal officially won the Premier League title one round early. This is also the first time in 22 years that the London team has won the highest league in England.
Speaking before Liverpool's final match against Brentford, coach Arne Slot sent congratulations to Mikel Arteta and Arsenal: "First of all, I want to congratulate Arsenal, the club, Mikel and the coaching staff for this great achievement. Winning the championship in England has never been easy and they did very well.
Liverpool was the champion last season under Slot, but is currently only fourth before the final round. However, the Dutch strategist believes that Arsenal this season is completely different from the recent Premier League champions.
This is a championship style that is completely different from the last 10 seasons. For the first time in about 30 years, a team has scored up to 40% of goals from set pieces," Slot said.
He also especially appreciated Arsenal's ability to operate the no-ball system: "Luis Enrique once said and I completely agree that Arsenal can be the best no-ball team in our league, even the best in Europe.
Football has changed, has evolved. We must ensure that next season we can continue to compete with Arsenal and Manchester City with our own football identity," Slot emphasized.
The 44-year-old coach also took the recent victory of Aston Villa as an example to show the increasing importance of set pieces.
Villa scored the first goal from a set piece and the second goal from a second ball situation after a set piece. We have to consider that. But at the same time, we still want to maintain the playing style that fans love, as long as it helps the team compete for titles," Slot affirmed.
