Mikel Arteta: No one has more desire to see Arsenal win Premier League than me | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta believes there is nobody who has “more motivation, more hunger and more desire” to deliver the Premier League for Arsenal than him.

Arsenal last won the league title in 2004 and have finished as runners-up for the past three seasons.

However, the north London side have established a dominant seven-point lead at the top of the table with 48 points to play for across the remaining 16 matches.

With Manchester City’s challenge faltering, and champions Liverpool a distant 14 points off the pace, the title is now seen as Arteta’s to lose.

And speaking ahead of his side’s pivotal match against Manchester United at the Emirates Stadium on Sunday, Arteta, whose sole silverware of his six-year reign remains Arsenal’s 2020 FA Cup triumph, said: “I don’t think anybody has more motivation, more hunger, more desire for us to go all the way and win it (than me).

“But we know that the only way to do it is to focus, be present in the moment, and everything that we have done today, do it better tomorrow.

“That’s it and that’s the only thing that we can control. The rest doesn’t add any value to us and it can take our focus to the wrong place.”

Despite Gabriel Jesus’ impressive two-goal haul in Arsenal’s 3-1 Champions League win against Inter Milan, Arteta could hand another chance to Viktor Gyokeres for the visit of United.

Gyokeres came off the bench in Italy to add Arsenal’s third goal but he has largely struggled in his debut campaign in north London.

Gyokeres scored 97 times in 102 matches for Sporting Lisbon prior to his switch to Arsenal but has netted just five times in the league.

However, Arteta insisted: ‘Let’s assess him at the end of the season and even sometimes that is too short a sample.

“We also need to understand the league that we are competing in and what is happening to the (number) nines across the league and the manner that the game is changing.

“So, there are a lot of factors to bear in mind when we assess the player, and then we’re going to assess him, not only in one aspect of the game but in many aspects of the game.”

One player who will not be involved for Arsenal this weekend is Ethan Nwaneri after the 18-year-old completed his loan move to Marseille until the end of the season.

“The talented young players that we have need minutes and Ethan wasn’t getting enough minutes,” said Arteta of the teenager, who has not started a league match this season.

“The last thing we want to do is cut his development because he’s such a talent. He lives and breathes football. That’s his life. Marseille is going to be a great experience for him.”