“I don’t want anyone to talk about it.”
Mikel Artesa is making some comfort from the first semifinal of the Arsenal Champions League in 16 years. It has been a season of progress in Europe for his team, which not only reached that historic moment – only for the third time in their history, but also without the winners of 15 times Real Madrid on their way.
But it’s not enough. When the curtain goes down in 2024/25, it will do so with Arsenal to enter their sixth season since they last raised silver. What is likely to be a premier league spot-up-up-up-up, and which goes to Final Four in Europe this season, has cemented a sense of being the bride, never the bride.
Sunday 11 May 4:15 PM
Start 4:30 in the afternoon
Talking to talk Heavenly Before a trip to the winners of the Liverpool League and what the arts accept will be a painful honor guard for newcomers, the Gunners chief says he is more interested in talking about why they lost in the glory of the Champions League – and does not discuss the external noise of greater offensive threat.
“We wanted to win the Champions League and we believed we could,” he said. “This is the soul. If someone says’ oh, but we have this,” I don’t want anyone to talk about it.
“Wednesday was one of the saddest but proud nights I had as Arsenal manager. I want to talk about one, why we didn’t win it, and what to do now to win it. This is what has to run this club, and all involved in it.
“Many things have to go on your way. What we did was increased probability and made it too high to reach the finals. But we lost a lot of great chances. We could give them credit, they had the best goalkeeper in the world saving those moments.
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Mikel Artesa admits that Arsenal has taken a step back in the Premier League ahead of their clash against Liverpool, where he confirms that they will give an honor guard.
“I understand the narrative (for signing a No 9). When you create five expected goals, but just score one, it will happen. Normally normal.
“We look at things with much more data and resources than many people, but many people have very good intuition for what is needed – and it’s good to hear those thoughts.
“We have a very clear vision of ownership, owner and board, new sports director, we are all in line with what we want to do. We are very close to his achievement – and that’s it.
“A few days will be sunny, then the storm will come. You have to spend every single day, raise your head up, make sure you are doing your best in a very honest way, and you are completely trusting what you can do. Then it will come.”
The list of Arsenal’s injuries has a dwarf that of their title rivals and it is something the arts referred to in the periods where his team has been specifically extended.
Reflecting where both of their Premier League and Champions League campaigns had fallen, he suggested the search for his back room staff had questioned whether it was really something beyond their control – or another “probability” they could improve after next season, through changes in training or had a group of players.
“The injuries I think have been a nightmare in terms of choosing formations, substitutes, as we change training sessions – because we have had cases without many players available,” he said.
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Sky Sports’ Nick Wright analyzes Arsenal’s loss over two legs in PSG in the Champions League and shows areas where they did not fall to the French club.
“This is when you want to really raise the standards, win and be much better than the opposition in this league, in this context. Always very demanding and very complicated.
“We’ve had three or four major injuries, and it’s very difficult to prevent them all. Can we do something different? Fate may have been different, training may 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 numbers we had at first to start the season were very, very low and we accepted the challenge because it is what we could do at that moment.”
Look at Liverpool vs arsenal in Sky Sports Premier League From 4.15pm on Sunday, the beginning of 4.30am.
