\n<\/p>\n
Mikel Arteta said that he wants to change Arsenal\u2019s history and finally lead them to a Champions League title, with their semi-final last season providing the proof they are good enough and the pain that could push them a step further.<\/p>\n
Defeat against the eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain was Arsenal\u2019s third semi-final and the coach insisted that, while they have to \u201cstart from scratch\u201d against Athletic Bilbao at San Mam\u00e9s, lessons had been learned. That was addressed with the \u00a3250m spent on strengthening the squad this summer; now the test comes on the pitch as they embark on their 23rd season in the competition.<\/p>\n
When it was put to Arteta that Arsenal may be the biggest club never to have won the competition, he said: \u201cThat with our long history [we haven\u2019t won it] tells you how difficult it is. That\u2019s the history of our club and that\u2019s what we want to change.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pressure is the opportunity that drives us, that gives us energy, and every decision has to be up to those standards and those expectations so that we have our best chance. It is that in that moment [of defeat] that you get deflated and have to understand what you have to do to get back in the same position.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is painful: not just in how we feel but [because of] the expectation we created and the real conviction that we could go all the way because we showed a very high level of consistency and quality. So we have to learn from that and try to get better.\u201d<\/p>\n
Asked what the main lesson had been, Arteta said: \u201cThat we are good enough and can compete against any opposition on the day. Then two or three things have to go your way. You need your full squad in key moments. The margins are so small. We were training with eight or nine key players and going into games with 13. It is very difficult but we gave ourselves an unbelievable chance and we were very unlucky not to get through.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut it\u2019s not that simple. You are so willing and you want to do better. There is a very clear intention with us to get better every day \u2013 that is the start and the end [point]. We have the understanding that we can compete against everyone. [We have spent but] like the rest of the teams have done and continue to do \u2013 and they have won it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWinning it is the aim at the beginning but we know it is a long journey and the margins are fine. The big clubs try seven, eight, nine times and win two. There\u2019s only going to be one winner and you lose more than you win.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Sign up to Football Daily<\/span><\/p>\n Kick off your evenings with the Guardian’s take on the world of football<\/p>\n Privacy Notice: <\/strong>Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.<\/span><\/p>\n after newsletter promotion<\/p>\n Arteta also has revealed that Bukayo Saka still has \u201ca lot of things to go through\u201d before he is ready to return from the hamstring injury he sustained in August, while the captain, Martin \u00d8degaard, will miss the match in Spain after he injured his shoulder in Arsenal\u2019s win against Nottingham Forest on Saturday. William Saliba is back from injury and available to play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Mikel Arteta said that he wants to change Arsenal\u2019s history and finally lead them to a Champions League title, with their semi-final last season providing the proof they are good enough and the pain that could push them a step further. Defeat against the eventual winners Paris Saint-Germain was Arsenal\u2019s third semi-final and the coach<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":21509,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53],"tags":[3366,13197,1732,11602,3504,13196,13198,5953,2642],"class_list":{"0":"post-21508","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-arsenal","9":"tag-arteta","10":"tag-champions","11":"tag-determined","12":"tag-league","13":"tag-mikel","14":"tag-nearmisses","15":"tag-painful","16":"tag-run"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21508\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/21509"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}