Mikel Arteta blames Aston Villa loss for Arsenal Premier League title race heartbreak

Mikel Arteta has cited Arsenal's loss to Aston Villa last month as one of the key reasons they failed to pip Manchester City to the Premier League title.

The North Londoners did one better than last season by taking Pep Guardiola's side down to the final day of the season, though ultimately required an unlikely swing in their favour with help from West Ham. David Moyes' team fell comfortably to the eventual champions, making Arsenal's result against Everton meaningless.

"First of all congrats to Manchester City for winning the Premier League. Unbelievable what they've done since December," Arteta stated via football.london. "We've been on an incredible journey with every performance has been at the highest we've seen and still it wasn't enough. This is the level."

To come so painstakingly close will haunt the Spaniard for a brief time before preparations for next season are fully underway. The Gunners lost the league by just two points, and so Arteta was asked where he believes those fine margins were lost during the season.

"For sure, Aston Villa at home," he replied without hesitation. "In the first half it should have been 4-0. Maybe the story would have been different."

On that Sunday in mid-April, Unai Emery's men travelled to the capital in search of an upset. Their hosts recorded 18 attempts on goal with four on target, but in the end Villa were the more clinical from their lesser two shots on target. Both came within 10 minutes of the final whistle, as Leon Bailey and Ollie Watkins devastated the Emirates Stadium.

Also citing Man City's away win at Tottenham Hotspur six days ago - the one that ensured Villa's Champions League qualification - he added: "What happened last Tuesday, maybe we could have been champions. These are the margins that are so, so, so small. That's the credit that the club and the team should take. We're doing this against the best team in the history of the Premier League by far."

Ultimately the result proved crucial in Villa's campaign too, as Spurs ended up finishing the season two points behind. Without victory against the Gunners, a top-four finish may not have been possible.