Mikel Arteta has taken responsibility for Arsenal’s collapse as he congratulated Manchester City for winning the Premier League title.
The Gunners were the team to beat this season having topped the table for a whopping 248 days.
But they started dropping points from the start of April, which allowed the Citizens to leapfrog them.
And after last weeks’ loss against Brighton, Arteta knew his side couldn’t afford to lose against Nottingham Forest if they wished to remain in with a slight shot at winning the club’s first league championship since 2004.
But they were second best at the City Ground as they were defeated 1-0.
The result confirmed City’s third consecutive title – their fifth in the last six years.
And Arteta has praised his former employers for their triumph, as he reflected on the ‘painful’ experience of missing out.
Speaking to Sky Sports, he said: “First of all congratulations to City for winning the championship, but obviously it is a really sad day for us after everything we have done in the season.
“But now we have to face the reality, today we gave a goal away and we were not good enough to break them down.
“We could play here for three hours and I have this feeling that we didn’t have enough [to score].
“It is my responsibility and I take it. When it is beautiful, great, when it isn’t, that is sport.
“The number of goals we have given to the opponents recently has cost us, but we can’t put the guilt on someone.
“We should not look for excuses and looking to put the guilt on someone. We should have been better as a team.
“We should have been better as a team and in the last few weeks we have fallen short, that’s for sure.”
Arteta continued: “This is football. It is a very sad day, we have been working for 11 months with that aim and have been on top for so many days.
“We have competed but we didn’t have enough. Now we must heal. It is very painful. I am extremely sad.
“I have to find a way to lift the players and we have a difficult week ahead of us.
“We have a huge responsibility, we play in front of our fans [against Wolves] that have been incredible all season, and they deserve a really good match.”
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