Arsenal crushed Wolverhampton Wanderers five goals without reply on Sunday at the Emirates Stadium in the final game of the English Premier League 2022/2023 season.
Arsenal had topped the Premier League for most of the season but stumbled in their last eight games as Manchester City overtook them for a third successive title.
The Gunners finished the season in style. Action from forward Gabriel Jesus on the right was headed in by Xhaka in the 11th minute to give them an early lead in the Swiss midfielder’s 297th game, and expected to be his last at Arsenal.
Xhaka’s superb finish was repeated three minutes later when the 30-year-old grabbed his second goal of the game.
Xhaka wasted a golden chance to score a hat-trick before Saka made it 3-0 in the 27th minute with a curling strike.
Jesus scored a fourth for the Gunners after the break while Jakub Kiwior made it 5-0 with less than 12 minutes remaining.
Arsenal ended the season with 84 points from 38 games, five points behind champions Manchester City.
It was their highest points tally since the “Invincibles” won the title by 90 points in 2004.
The Gunners will return to the Champions League next season for the first time since the 2016-17 season.
Ahead of Sunday’s match, Arsenal captain Odegaard said in his program notes that it will take time for the team to overcome the disappointments of this season.
“I still can’t explain how or why our form changed,” Odegaard said as quoted by ESPN.
“But we still have a very young team, the direction is good and it’s up to us to learn from this season and improve again next year.”
As is known, Arsenal has topped the 2022-2023 Premier League standings for quite a long time. Unfortunately, towards the end of this season, the Gunners’ position at the top of the standings had to be taken by Manchester City until they failed to win.
Arsenal must be willing to finish in second place by posting 84 points, they are only five points adrift of Manchester City who are at the top of the standings. Of the 38 matches played, Bukayo Saka and colleagues won 26 wins, six draws and six defeats.
Mikel Arteta also believes that Arsenal currently have a good foundation. He emphasized that the Gunners must be able to perform even better in order to become a team to challenge for the 2023-2024 Premier League title.
“I think we have a good foundation. In this sport, you have to keep giving evidence, go back on the first day of pre-season and see each other’s faces. I don’t want to see any satisfaction from the results of this season,” Arteta was quoted as saying on Arsenal’s official website. , Monday (29/5/2023).
“We have to be able to get even better and this will be a challenging season. However, of course there is also an opportunity if we are able to be consistent and do better again. That’s what we want from each other,” he said.
Despite failing to win, finishing in second place has made Mikel Arteta highly motivated to perform even better next season. The coach from Spain is optimistic that his team can develop in a positive direction and achieve even better results.
“This gives energy and belief. We are all together in this struggle. We want to keep getting better and be the best, to do that, we have to develop,” said Mikel Arteta.
“We know the level of competition will increase again next year and we are ready to compete,” he concluded.
