“I don't want anyone to talk about it.”
Mikel Arteta takes little comfort from Arsenal's First Champions League semi-final in 16 years. It has been a season of progress in Europe for his side, which not only reached that milestone – for the third time also in their history – but also 15 -way winners Real Madrid on their way.
But it's not enough. When the curtain arrives at 2024/25, it will do this with Arsenal about to enter their sixth season, because they were the last lifted silverware. What will probably be a hat trick from Premier League runners-up places, and who are walking to the last four in Europe this season, has a feeling of always cemented the bridesmaid, never the bride.
Speaking against Sky Sports Prior to a trip to competition winners Liverpool and what Arteta gives, will be a painful honor for the newly crowned champions, says the Gunners – Baas that he is more interested in talking why they missed Champions League Glory – and the external noise is not disputed.
“We wanted to win the Champions League and we believed we could do it,” he said. “That's the Spirit. If someone says 'Oh, but we have this', I don't want anyone to talk about it.
“On Wednesday was one of the most sad but proud nights that I had as an Arsenal manager. I want to talk about one, why we didn't win it and what we should do to win it. That is what this club has to drive, and everyone involved in it.
“Many things have to go in your own way. What we did was increase the chance, and making it very high that we would reach the final. But we have missed too many great opportunities. We can give them the honor, they had the best goalkeeper in the world that saves those moments.
“I understand the story [about signing a No 9]. When you make five expected goals, but only one scores, this will happen. It's normal.
“We look at things with much more data and sources than many people, but many people have a very good intuition about what is needed – and it's good to listen to those opinions.
“We have a very clear vision of the property, the owner and the board, the new sports director, we are all tailored to what we want to do. We are very close to achieving it – and that's it.
“Some days it will be sunny, then the storm will come. You have to continue every day, lift your head up, make sure that you do your best in a very honest way and you fully believe what you can do. Then it will come.”
The Letter List of Arsenal has overshadowed that of their title Rivals and is something that Arteta has been referred to in periods in which his team is mainly stretched.
Thinking about where both their Premier League and Champions League campaigns had left, he suggested that the soul examination of his back room staff had already wondered if it was indeed something outside of their control – or another “probability” that they could improve next season, by changes in training or a larger pool of players to choose from.
“The injuries I think have been a nightmare in terms of selecting line -ups, replacements, how we change training sessions – because we have had times without many players available,” he said.
“That is when you really want to increase the standards, win and want to be much better than the opposition in this competition, in this context. It is very demanding and very difficult.
“We had three or four major injuries, and it is very difficult to prevent them all. Can we do something else? Happiness could have been different, the training could have been different, the gym could have been different, prevention could be different.
“We will look at all those things to try to be better and the reality is that the starting point and the figures we had in the beginning to start the season were very, very low and we accepted the challenge because it is what we could do at the time.”
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