I won the double with Arsenal – I know what Mikel Arteta must do to win trophies without his players

Arsenal hero Emmanuel Petit says Mikel Arteta must guide the Gunners to a trophy this season in order to “convince” his squad that their efforts of improvement have been worthwhile.

The club have not won a major piece of silverware since lifting the FA Cup in Arteta’s first campaign, during the Covid-impacted year of 2020. Two Community Shields have followed but Arsenal have otherwise since failed to reach a final with the manager’s own set of players.

Some believe the Arsenal boss will come under pressure if he records another trophy-less season given the club will have nothing to show for their admirable growth under the Spaniard. Petit agrees that ending the barren run is crucial in sustaining the morale of those who have been in the side for the long haul.

“I hope that will happen this season because they have to win something to keep the confidence of the players and the vision of the club,” Petit told football london. “It’s important if you want to keep the same ambitions, if you want the players to follow you every single game, you need to win something at the end of the season.

“If you asked this question to Arteta, he would tell you the same answer. Football, what is it? It’s winning games, winning titles. And at the moment, after two, three, three years of amazing work, you need to win something.

“If I am a player at Arsenal and I’ve been playing for years over there and I saw the improvements of the team, as well individually, but at the end we never win anything…

“They won an FA Cup, but they need to reach more important targets; Premier League or Champions League. I’m not sure that the Champions League is the right season. But for the Premier League, I think they have something to say about it, definitely.”

Petit – who won the double with Arsenal during the 1997/98 season under Arsene Wenger – says that the team contains players whose goal is precisely to win trophies and that not doing so would, for them, count as a disappointment.

“They definitely have to win something to convince the players [who have been there] for the last two, three years all together – even more for the spine of the team… you have to win something,” the 1998 World Cup winner continued.

“Those players, what they have been showing on the pitch for years now, you know straight away that they have ambition individually.

“Those guys, they are here not only to win games but to win trophies. You can see you can feel it, every single game. So for me, this is very important this season.”