Arteta: Last Season’s Champions League Pain Will Drive Arsenal Forward

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta says last season’s Champions League heartbreak will serve as motivation for his side as they begin their bid to win the trophy for the first time.

The Gunners fell to eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-finals, but Arteta believes the lessons learned will strengthen the team ahead of their opener against Athletic Bilbao on Tuesday.

“You take a lot of learnings from it — it’s painful because… it’s about the expectation that we created and the real conviction that we had within the club, the team, that we could go all the way,” Arteta said at a press conference at San Mames.

“We showed a very high level of consistency and quality throughout the competition and (we’ll) learn from it and try to be better.”

Arteta stressed that competing in Europe’s elite tournament requires quality, luck, and squad depth.

“(We learned) we are good enough, that we can compete against any opposition on the day and on top of that, that things have to go your way,” he explained. “You need to have a full squad available when it comes to the most critical moments in the season and then, the ball has to go in, in the right moment, or (you have to get) the right decision, because the margins are so small.”

Arsenal, who reached the Champions League final in 2006 but lost to Barcelona, have not won a major trophy since the 2020 FA Cup.

Arteta confirmed that Gabriel Saliba, Kai Havertz, Martin Odegaard, Ben White, and Bukayo Saka would all miss the Bilbao clash.

Meanwhile, goalkeeper David Raya, who marked his 100th appearance for the club last weekend with 42 clean sheets, reflected on his journey since replacing Aaron Ramsdale as Arsenal’s first choice in 2023.

“When I came to Arsenal there was a lot of noise, a lot of talk, and it was understandable,” Raya said. “Having Aaron, who’s a hell of a ‘keeper, and out of nowhere it just gets changed — obviously the media is going to be noisy and there were a few games where I could have done better.

“Everybody has bad games and the noise was starting to get a bit bigger, I just had to focus on myself and what I can control. Off the pitch I just try to be deaf, basically.”

Looking ahead, Raya insisted Arsenal have the quality and belief to finally lift the Champions League.

“We have belief, we want to win, we are Arsenal and we play to win,” he added. “That’s what we want to do and that’s what we play football for, but… it’s a long journey, it’s a long season, in the Champions League and the Premier League.”

Opinion Nigeria News