[Sport]How Mikel Arteta powered Arsenal to brink of Premier League championship triumph

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Wearing a broad smile, Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said before the game against Manchester United: “My brain tells me Arsenal are going to lift the trophy next Sunday.” Winning the title is no longer in the hands of his team—for the dream to realise, his former employers, Manchester City have to spill points, at the home of Arsenal’s caustic rivals Tottenham Hotspur, or more improbably, at Etihad against a directionless West Ham United. Two London clubs could combine to bring the title back to the capital, though Manchester looks the likelier destination.

But Arteta and Arsenal would not shed belief. That perhaps is the biggest virtue the Spaniard has instilled in his team. That virtue, simple yet complex, has driven the Premier League race to the last weekend, promising unputdownable drama. This precisely is the virtue that Arsenal didn’t carry to the Emirates, buried somewhere in the depths of the glorious Highbury, where it became the Invincibles. The Emirates is a magnificent piece of architecture, a stadium with a soul, yet Arsenal have floundered several years without a league triumph, left to console with their record collection of FA Cups.