Mikel Arteta believes there has been “no better team in the competition” after Arsenal lost to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League semi-final, blaming their “worst state” for the exit on Wednesday.
PSG won 1-0 at the Emirates courtesy of an Ousmane Dembele goal, but the French side didn’t require their Ballon d’Or candidate to get over the line at home, with Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi scoring the goals to end the Gunners’ Champions League dream.
Arteta reckons his side deserved to reach the final based on their superiority across the two legs against the French giants, and made the bold blame that the Gunners have been the best side in Champions League as a whole this season.
“I don’t think there’s been a better team in the competition from what I’ve seen,” Arteta told TNT Sports.
“But we are out. We deserved much more but this competition is about the boxes, the strikers most of the time and the goalkeeper and theirs was the best player in both games.
“I’m so proud of the boys, they deserve lots of credit for what they’re doing and the amount of injuries. We arrived here in the worst state. You have to get here with everyone fit and available with lots of minutes. They had a week. We came here in a different context. That gives me a lot of positivity for the future.”
Gianluihi Donnarumma made eight saves – including one extraordinary one to deny Martin Odegaard – as Arsenal created 4.77 worth of expected goals across the two legs but only scored once.
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Bukayo Saka gave the Gunners late home with a scruffy goal but then missed a gilt-edged chance to give PSG a nervy last ten minutes, smashing the ball over the bar when faced with an open goal.
Arteta added: “The assessment I’ll make when I’m a little bit cooler but the feeling I get from their bench was that we were much better than them.
“Over the two legs the best player on the pitch was their goalkeeper – he’s made a difference in the tie. We were very close much closer than the results showed but unfortunately we are out. I’m so proud. How we started and handled the pressure – after 20 minutes we should be 3-0 up. But there is something extra in this competition to go your way and it didn’t.
“I’m upset, it has to hurt. If we want to win this competition and we need to realise that. Just understanding that we are out is not the way I look at it.”
