
Mikel Arteta says his Arsenal team did not deserve to lose against Paris Saint-Germain and that his players were reduced to tears at full-time.
Arsenal lost 2-1 in Paris to be eliminated 3-1 on aggregate in the Champions League semi-final but Arteta claimed that Arsenal were the best team in the competition.
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The Arsenal manager singled out Gianluigi Donnarumma as the Ligue 1 club’s standout player in the tie after his side were denied on a number of occasions by the PSG goalkeeper.
“I’m saying that and they are saying that because they (PSG) just told me that,” Arteta said.
“First of all, congratulations for being in the final. Talking about merits, I think we deserve much more. When you analyse both games, who has been the best player, the MVP, has been the same player, the goalkeeper.
“The Champions League is decided in the boxes and it’s won the game for them because obviously today after 20 minutes and what happened in London as well, the result should have been very different. So I can take a lot of positives and I’m very proud of the team.
“We have to arrive in the competition at this stage with the full squad, full available, in best condition. We haven’t got that, so let’s put that aside. Still, the team that I’ve seen today against is probably one of the best, if not the best team in Europe. It gives me so much pride but at the same time I’m so upset, so annoyed that we didn’t manage to do it.”

Arteta singled out Donnarumma for praise (James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)
Speaking to TNT Sports, Arteta added: “The assessment I will make when I’m a little bit cooler, but the assessment I got from their bench was we were much better than them. When you look at the two games, their best player on the pitch has been their goalkeeper. I think we were very close, much closer than our results showed.”
Arsenal will now finish their fifth season in a row without a trophy after missing out on a place in the final in Munich.
Bukayo Saka scored Arsenal’s only goal across the two legs but they squandered several other big chances.
“I’m very proud of the players that we have and that we create chances and situations that normally on other days are goals. But again, sometimes you have to approach your position, what the keeper is doing, not in this tie, in both ties. They won the game for you and you need that.
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“To win a competition, you need that. In one of the two boxes, somebody has to do something special to win it for you and make it happen and that was the difference.
“This squad, two years ago, nobody believed that we could even probably qualify for the Champions League, not even thinking that we could finish second and compete in the league.”
Arteta dismissed the idea that his players could struggle to reset and motivate themselves after again falling just short.
“With fear you cannot play football at the highest level,“ he said.
“We had the best example in the (other) dressing room, Marquinhos. Eleven times he’s tried in this club as a winner (in the Champions League). Eleven times he’s the captain. So that’s the truth and let’s see if they win it. So 11 times they have to go down and up.
“So look in the mirror at somebody like this with that trajectory and you want to be in the sport and you want to be competing and be very close to all the trophies, you better be able to deal with that.
“Today I see how much they want it because they were in tears.”
Arsenal return to action against Liverpool on Sunday.
(Photo: Thomas Samson/AFP via Getty Images)
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