Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal can bridge the gap to the Premier League champions if they show more potency in attack next season.
The Gunners ended the 2013/14 campaign seven points behind Manchester City after scoring 68 goals in their 38 matches - their lowest top-flight tally for five years.
Man City plundered 102 goals while runners-up Liverpool also reached a century, and Wenger thinks that made the difference.
"The injuries were on offensive fronts and Walcott and Wilshere and Podolski and Chamberlain and Ozil were all injured together"
"This time we missed goals," he told Arsenal Player. "We missed goals [during the season] and that's what we want to improve [on].
"Maybe that highlights one of the negatives of our season - the injuries we had at the crucial part of the season. The injuries were on offensive fronts and Walcott and Wilshere and Podolski and Chamberlain and Ozil were all injured together.
"So that is of course something that diminished, and losing Ramsey as well diminished our offensive potential. I'm sure we'll come back next season and score more goals."
Wenger saw plenty of signs during 2013/14 to suggest that Arsenal can keep moving forward next term.
"I feel the positives were that we had a very good collective game, that we bounced back from very difficult situations mentally," he said. "The concentration and the effort put in by the team was first class.
"The negative was that, despite a good away record, in the big games away from home we missed a win or two and we conceded too many goals in these games."
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.