PARIS, FRANCE - MAY 06: Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta attends a press conference ahead of their UEFA Champions League 2024/25 semi final first/second leg match at Parc des Princes on May 06, 2025 in Paris, France. (Photo by Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
Mikel Arteta brought up Liverpool at his Arsenal press to preview the Champions League semi-final decider with Paris Saint-Germain
Having been eliminated at the last-16 phase by Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool might reasonably have assumed the Champions League was no longer their business this season. But their achievement of winning the Premier League title with four games to spare under Arne Slot saw their name being flung about in Mikel Arteta's pre-match press conference when the Arsenal boss spoke to the media ahead of his side's semi-final second leg with PSG on Wednesday night.
Speaking on Tuesday, the Gunners boss, seemingly unprompted, attempted to play down the significance of Liverpool's 15-point lead at the top of the table, with an assessment that came off sounding more like sour grapes than whatever point the former Everton midfielder was actually attempting to make.
Asked if he felt under pressure to deliver a trophy at the Emirates this term, five years on from the club's most recent snaring of silver in the form of the 2020 FA Cup, Arteta said: "We are going to try and do it this season but winning trophies is about being in the right moment in the right place.
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"Liverpool have won the title with less points than we have in the last two seasons. So for the past two seasons we have two Premier League [titles].
"You have to be in the right moment in the right place. Hopefully we will be in the right place in the right moment in Paris tomorrow and earn that right to be in the final."
Perhaps only Arteta will know how much the reference to Liverpool and their title success was premeditated and what portion of it was off the cuff, but had the Gunners boss looked at the league tables before firing the bizarre broadside, he might have thought better about such a comparison.
To make the point a fairer one, it's worth looking at how many points his side had collected after 35 games in the last two terms, when his team have finished as runners-up to Manchester City on both occasions.
With three games left to play - the first coming this Sunday at home against Arteta's Arsenal - the new champions can still end this campaign with 91 points. Only three times has that been bettered at Anfield in the Premier League era, back in 2019, 2020 and 2022 under Jurgen Klopp.
Arteta, meanwhile, finished last season with 89 points and 84 the previous campaign.
After 35 games two years ago, Arsenal were on 81 points and found themselves one behind leaders City, who had a game in hand. This term last year, Arsenal led the way on 80 points, one ahead of Pep Guardiola's men, who, crucially, had a game in hand.
Eagle-eyed statisticians will spot that in both seasons, the Gunners had fewer points than Liverpool's current tally of 82.
Perhaps even more damning for Arteta is that the Reds had secured the title against their closest rivals with a month to spare and could even make six changes and play at half-speed at Chelsea on Sunday for their third and most inconsequential defeat of the campaign.
The fact that Liverpool can go 18 points clear of second-placed Arsenal at Anfield on Sunday only highlights the paucity of the challenge from Arteta and his team.
It is not an indication that Slot has simply been in the right place, at the right time. To suggest otherwise is more than vaguely insult to the incredible job the Reds' head coach has done since succeeding the legendary Klopp.
That the champions still have the chance to secure their crown by the biggest-ever margin, which currently stands at 19, with three games to play reflects poorly on an Arsenal who have faltered badly in the last eight to 10 weeks.
Arsenal have taken just 14 from the last 30 points on offer and there has been no real 'race' between the two clubs since a damaging weekend for the Londoners that saw them beaten at home to West Ham United on February 22 before Liverpool went 11 clear the following day with a 2-0 win at Manchester City.
Since then, the notion of a chase for the biggest crown in English football has been nothing more than an illusion. Arteta's comments only hold up the mirror to his own team's domestic shortcomings.