Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has congratulated Tottenham Hotspur for winning the Europa League.
He, however, insisted that winning a trophy should not determine if a club’s season is successful or not.
Speaking during an interview with the press, Arteta said that Tottenham definitely did a lot of things right to be Europa League champions, and it was a good crowning moment for the club after the difficult season they’ve had.
Mikel revealed that he never compares Arsenal’s season with any other team, and his focus would always be on his club and not his rivals.
“They are [Europa League] champions and when you get to that you have to do a lot of things right. I think they’re going through a season with a lot of obstacles and difficulties. And they have, at the end… A beautiful moment.
I don’t like to compare with other teams. I need to analyse my team, that’s my job,” he said.
The Spaniard noted that no team should not be judged solely on their trophy count in a season because Arsenal should deservedly remain a global brand despite not winning the EPL or UCL in a very long time.
Arteta said that ranking the value of a club according to the number of trophies they have won will never reflect the true progress football clubs make on the pitch, season in season out.
“Where is the joy then? Because then if I have to analyse ourselves … We have failed the last 20 years in the Premier League and we have failed in all our history in the Champions League.
Who are we then? Where is our brand, where is our club… Where is our value, our way of playing? Where are the moments that we lived together with our people?” Arteta said.
He confirmed that despite having nothing to play for again this term, his players are very motivated to finish with the best defensive record in the EPL ahead of the match vs Southampton on Sunday.
“We want to have as many points as possible. We still want to achieve the best defensive record … Finish the season on a high,” he added.
