Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta is urging his players to believe they can win the Champions League for the first time because they have already beaten “the best opposition you can face in the competition.”
Defeating defending champion Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the quarterfinals — after victories home and away — has raised expectations that Arsenal can go all the way.
Arteta acknowledged everyone associated with Arsenal is feeling the weight of history heading into the semifinals against Paris Saint-Germain, starting with the first leg at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, and he wants his team to embrace that.
Asked whether Arsenal should be classed as the tournament favorite after its displays against Madrid, Arteta said they have “generated enthusiasm and possibilities no one probably expected.”
“But when you look at our history — and you go back to our history — we have never done it,” he said. “So there is so much to do. Hopefully if someone believes we can do it, it’s because of the performances and what the team is transmitting against big opposition.”
Arsenal lost the Champions League final to Barcelona in 2006 and in the semifinals to Manchester United in 2009 and hasn’t been back to the last four since.
“There’s a lot of people working at the club for many, many years and they’ve never been in this position,” Arteta said. “That tells you how unique and beautiful it is. It is the biggest competition, the European Cup, and we’ve never done it. We need to earn the right to be in that final.”
Arteta is taking inspiration from Arsenal reaching the Women’s Champions League final for the first time since 2007 after beating record eight-time champion Lyon 4-1 on Sunday.
“It’s incredible what they have done,” Arteta said. “To achieve it in the manner they have done it, they’ve shown the road, the pathway, how we can do it.”
In a rallying cry, Arteta urged fans to “bring your boots, your shorts, your T-shirts and let’s play every ball together” against PSG in the hope of recreating the atmosphere at the Emirates for the first leg against Madrid, which Arsenal won 3-0.
“If we want to do something special,” he said, “that place has to be something special that we haven’t seen.”
