Mikel Arteta wants Arsenal to use the “pain” of their Champions League Final defeat to drive them forward next season.
Misses from Eberechi Eze and Gabriel saw Arsenal lose the penalty shootout 4-3 to reigning champions, PSG, after Kai Havertz’s sixth-minute strike was cancelled out by a penalty from Ousmane Dembele.
Arteta post-match revealed that he now wants his players to use the pain to drive them to new performance levels next season to match PSG and Luis Enrique.
“First of all, you have to go through that pain, digest it and turn it into fuel and improve to reach a different level. It will demand a different level with the quality around Europe. I want to congratulate PSG, Luis in particular, because in my opinion they’re the best team in the world.
“What they are able to do with the ball, with individual actions, I haven’t seen it. It’s not the plan to play in certain areas when you don’t have the ball but they force you to do that, so even more credit to the players.”
Arteta proceeded to add that he simply feels pain which he believes is natural.
“Pain – that’s it. When you are so close in the competition and today you are a few penalty kicks away from winning the biggest club football competition, that’s the way we should feel.”
Arsenal are tipped to be challenging for major honours next season whilst many of their Premier League rivals undergo change as new managers take charge, but Arteta isn’t certain that they will be favourites to reach finals just on pure stability.
“I don’t know, we’re going to have to earn that. The same progression that we had in the last few years, we’re going to have to do that over again and the level is increasing every single season. We have had an incredible competition, we haven’t lost a single match in the competition, but the reality is that when something had to go our way, especially in the boxes with the penalty that was given against Mosquera and the penalty to Madueke and the penalty kicks, those margins didn’t go for us.
Arteta added that his pain is mixed with pride as he addressed the positives of being able to embrace enjoyment and special occasions.
“What I said to the players and the staff is that if I tell them one million times ‘thank you’, it’s not going to be enough. It’s not because we won the Premier League and it’s not because we played the League Cup final, it’s not because we played the Champions League final in the manner that we’ve done. It’s because of the joy and the moments that we have lived together every single day and that’s above anything else.”