{"id":62352,"date":"2025-09-30T21:23:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T21:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel"},"modified":"2025-09-30T22:01:54","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T22:01:54","slug":"no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","title":{"rendered":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Arteta\u2019s men have everything it takes to be crowned Premier League champions this season.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking on Arsenal\u2019s progress under Arteta, Mikel praised the Spaniard for his squad-building, describing the Gunners as the most complete side in England\u2014and possibly across Europe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe\u2019s done so well. Mikel Arteta, he\u2019s built a good, good squad \u2013 the strongest squad in the Premier League,\u201d Mikel said. \u201cNot just in the Premier League, I might say, you know, in Europe right now. Arsenal, in terms of depth, their squad is complete. There is no excuse for not winning the Premier League.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal, who have come close to ending their two-decade title drought in recent years, currently boast a mix of youth and experience, with players like Bukayo Saka, Martin \u00d8degaard, and Declan Rice at the core of the team.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel\u2019s comments add to the growing expectation around the North London club, who are tipped by many to finally go all the way after narrowly missing out last season.<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Lesotho<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Lesotho. Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Arteta\u2019s men have everything it takes to be crowned Premier League champions this season. Speaking on Arsenal\u2019s progress under Arteta, Mikel praised the Spaniard for his squad-building, describing the Gunners as the most complete [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":62351,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,17],"tags":[245],"class_list":["post-62352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-lesotho"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"770\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"481\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\"},\"wordCount\":207,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Lesotho\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\",\"name\":\"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg\",\"width\":770,\"height\":481,\"caption\":\"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel - Lesotho","description":"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel","og_description":"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00","og_image":[{"width":770,"height":481,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel","datePublished":"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel"},"wordCount":207,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg","keywords":["Lesotho"],"articleSection":["all news","sport"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel","name":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg","datePublished":"2025-09-30T21:23:19+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-30T22:01:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Former Chelsea and Nigeria midfielder John Obi Mikel has thrown down the gauntlet to Arsenal, insisting that Mikel Artet ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2025\/09\/sm_1759256698.627587.jpg","width":770,"height":481,"caption":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/no-excuse-for-arsenal-to-win-premier-league-mikel#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"No Excuse for Arsenal to Win Premier League Mikel"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}