Mikel Arteta joined an Arsenal side that was hurtling towards the relegation zone late last year. The rookie manager managed to transform their performances and helped them finish the campaign 8th on the league table and winning the FA Cup.
The Gunners were 43 points behind eventual league winners, Liverpool, who has one of the best squads in the Premier League.
They beat the Reds before the end of the last Premier League season and beat them again on penalties in the Community Shield.
Both teams will face each other again on Monday and Mikel Arteta reckons that his team cannot close such a huge gap in a short period of time.
However, they will keep consistently trying to get all the points that they can and hopefully, Liverpool will also drop their level of performance which will make catching them easier.
‘I don’t know if in football history someone has closed a gap of 43 points if they maintain the same level in just a few months,’ said Arteta as quoted by the Mail.
‘Obviously what you are expecting to do is be much better and more consistent and then they can drop the level a little bit, and then the gap is not that big.
‘But we can control what we can control, which is our performances and our level of consistency. We will do our best to try to be much better than last year.’
The Gunners will also face the Reds in the Carabao Cup at Anfield during the week and Arteta will hope to win at least one of these matches.
