“I don’t think there’s been a better team” than Arsenal in Champions League this season, insists Arteta | OneFootball

Arsenal’s UEFA Champions League journey came to a close on Wednesday at the Parc des Princes, with the Gunners falling to a 2-1 defeat against Paris Saint-Germain on the night after suffering a 0-1 loss in North London last week – but Mikel Arteta insists that his side “deserved much more” from the tie.

Ousmane Dembélé’s opener at the Emirates Stadium put les Parisiens in control of the tie, and while the Frenchman was only fit enough to start on the bench in the second leg, PSG were able to call upon goals from elsewhere to extend their lead in the tie.

A stunning strike from Fabián Ruiz was followed by a clinical finish into the bottom corner by Achraf Hakimi, with Bukayo Saka’s late goal nothing more than a consolation for the travelling fans in the French capital.

Speaking to TNT Sports following the defeat, Arteta stated: “We were very close. For long periods of both games, we were much better than them. But we are not there [in the final] and that has to hurt. If we want to win this competition and go there, we need to realise that there are certain things that are on us and you shouldn’t just be understanding that we are out.”

“It’s not the way I look at it,” he explained, before adding: “I don’t think there’s been a better team in the competition so far. But we are out tonight. We deserve much more, I think, in both games. But this competition is about the boxes, and the boxes are normally the strikers most of the time, and the goalkeeper – and he [Gianluigi Donnarumma] was the best player in both games.”

Still, the Spaniard insisted that his players “deserve a lot of credit for what they’re doing in the context and the situation, and with the amount of injuries, we have arrived here probably in the worst state that you can arrive as a team. You have to get here with everybody here fit, available, with a lot of minutes and with rest – like they [PSG] had a week. We come here in a completely different context and still do that. So that gives me a lot of positivity for the future, but tonight I am very upset.”

Paris Saint-Germain will face Inter Milan in the 2024/25 UEFA Champions League final on Saturday 31 May. Kick-off at Munich’s Allianz Arena is scheduled for 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST].