Arsene Wenger told Thierry Henry exactly why Arsenal struggle to win Premier League titles

Arsene Wenger revealed why Arsenal can’t seem to win a Premier League title.

A "miracle" was what manager Mikel Arteta admitted he was pinning his title hopes on during the final day of the Premier League season, with the Gunners requiring Manchester City to drop points at home to West Ham.

It has been exactly 20 years since Arsenal were last able to celebrate being crowned champions, which came at the end of a historical unbeaten season under Wenger. But there were to be no such celebrations at the Emirates on Sunday as City comfortably beat West Ham 3-1 at the Etihad.

Abu Dhabi owned behemoth City clinched their sixth league trophy in just seven years. While many marvelled at yet another display of Pep Guardiola's managerial prowess, others saw it only as further evidence of the harsh reality of state-ownership dominating the landscape of English football.

Ever the visionary, Wenger warned against the dangers of what he called "financial doping" two decades ago. With 115 unresolved financial charges, City’s dominance and swatting away of another ‘title rival’ serves as a testament to the Frenchman's foresight, reports the Express.

Wenger delved into the reasons behind Arsenal's title drought in a candid interview with Arsenal legend Thierry Henry back in 2016, at the end of his 22-year managerial tenure. Henry asked FIFA's now Chief of Global Football Development why the first 10 years of his reign were so much more prolific in comparison to the period from 2006 to 2018.

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Speaking on Sky Sports, Wenger responded: "I never thought it would take us so much time to win trophies again. It was two contributing factors. The first one was that we built a new stadium and because of restricted finances we had to sell our best players.

"The second one is that big investors came in at the same time like Chelsea and Manchester City after who were hugely ambitious. And we were not the club who could basically compete with them anymore on the financial front."

Wenger went on to add: "Today is different. Today you have so many investors that everyone is nearly on an equal level again. But for years, I must say it was the most difficult years because I had created the level of expectation and I thought we did not have the same potential to compete anymore.

"Then you're always on the backfoot to justify 'why don't you win the Premier League anymore?’. I can understand that because that's a normal request for someone who loves Arsenal."

Chelsea, bought by billionaire oligarch Roman Abramovich in 2003, were the first to utilise their financial power to reach the top, clinching consecutive titles in 2004/05 and 2005/06. City claimed their first Premier League title in 2011 - three years after their own takeover.

Since 2016, it's been a near impossible task to topple the Etihad dynasty, with only Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool managing to do so - on one occasion. Arteta has since taken up the role of humouring Guardiola, only to be trumped at the end.

Arsenal were frontrunners for a significant part of the 2022/23 season, but a late-season collapse due to a thin squad and lack of experience cost them. This season, they enjoyed an incredible run from January onwards in which they dropped points in just two games.

It still wasn't sufficient as City's deep squad of world class players and their title-winning experience saw them go undefeated in the league from early December, going on a nine-match winning streak to end the season.