Archive May 8, 2025

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal were the best team in the Champions League this season, despite losing their semi-final to Paris St-Germain.

The Gunners came into the Parc des Princes needing to overturn a 1-0 loss from the home first leg to book a place in the final against Inter Milan.

But while Arsenal created a number of good opportunities, they could not find a way past PSG keeper Gianluigi Donnarumma until Bukayo Saka’s late strike. By then, goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi had put the French champions on their way to a 2-1 second-leg success, and 3-1 on aggregate.

“We were very close, much closer than the result showed, but unfortunately we are out,” said Arteta.

“I am very proud of the players, 100% I don’t think there’s been a better team [than Arsenal] in the competition from what I have seen, but we are out.

Having failed to reach a first Champions League final since 2006, the Arsenal boss revealed his players were in tears in the dressing room following the loss – and he was “upset and so annoyed” they not find a way to turn around the tie.

Asked whether he agreed with Arteta, PSG boss Luis Enrique said his own side deserved to reach the final.

“Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all,” he added. “They played in a clever way and they got the match to the right moment for them because they played in the way they wanted, and the way they love. But in the two legs we scored more than them and that is the most important thing in football.

The Gunners started superbly and, after Declan Rice headed wide from close range, Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard forced Donnarumma into fine saves.

Saka also forced the PSG keeper into another excellent stop in the second half as Arsenal finished the match with an expected goal ratio of 3.14.

“When you analyse both games, who has been the best player? The MVP has been the same player, the goalkeeper.” added Arteta.

“And the Champions League is decided in the boxes and it’s won the game for them because obviously 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 the best condition. We haven’t got that, so let’s put that aside.

“Still, the team that I’ve seen today 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. I see how much they wanted it, because they were in tears. It hurts, but you have to deal with that.”

The defeat meant Arsenal will end the season without winning a trophy for the fourth season in a row, after Arteta led them to an FA Cup triumph in 2020 during his first season in charge.

They have also finished second in the Premier League for the last two seasons and the Spaniard was asked whether his players will struggle to get motivated to try again after another disappointment.

“With fear you cannot play football at the highest level. We had the best example in the [PSG] dressing room – Marquinhos, 11 times he’s tried in this club to be a winner, 11 times he’s the captain,” said Arteta.

“So that’s the truth and let’s see if they win it. So 11 times they have to go down and up.

Paris St-Germain’s pursuit of European glory has been a long one.

But with the club in a “special moment” following their 2-1 semi-final victory over Arsenal on Wednesday – 3-1 on aggregate – their dreams could finally become reality in Munich against Italian champions Inter Milan on 31 May.

The Champions League is the one trophy that has eluded the 13-time French champions, who reached the 2019-20 final but were beaten by Bayern Munich.

But under Luis Enrique, PSG have struck a balance between star quality, togetherness and hard work.

“PSG, out of all the Champions League teams I’ve seen this season, they’re in a special moment at this club,” said former England defender Matthew Upson on BBC Radio 5 Live.

“There’s a real feeling from me that this is going to be their time. A team that works incredibly hard for each other, they’ve got a speed and energy about them that is so hard to handle.

PSG might have lost five games on their way to the Champions League final, but they have found a way to win when it matters.

“They have gone to young, French players, the fans identify with these players. They are a proper team and deserve to be in the final,” said Owen Hargreaves on TNT Sports.

“Luis Enrique understands you cannot carry any players in the Champions League. Now they have captured the hearts of Paris fans and for the neutrals they are great to watch.”

Their semi-final victory is in no small part thanks to their dynamic full-backs – Achraf Hakimi, who was named man of the match in both legs and scored a stunning goal to make sure of PSG’s victory, and Nuno Mendes.

Their energy up and down the flanks always gave PSG options out wide in attack while their workrate to get back into defensive shape was equally impressive.

“They have come up against some of the best wingers in Europe and they have really stood tall, and they are not scared of having those duels, time and time again, or being isolated against them,” said former Manchester City defender Nedum Onuoha.

“In terms of a full-back display in Europe this season, the stuff that they have been doing is as good as any pair in the competition.”

Gianluigi Donnarumma has also been a key figure with Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta suggesting the Italian goalkeeper is the reason PSG have reached the final.

“Over the two legs, the best player on the pitch was their goalkeeper – he’s made a difference in the tie,” said the Gunners boss.

Questions around whether PSG would ever win a Champions League title intensified with the departures of Neymar and Lionel Messi in 2023 before Kylian Mbappe’s move to Real Madrid last year had many writing off the French side all together.

Instead, Mbappe will watch his former side contest the final against Inter after his current team were dumped out in the quarter-finals by Arsenal.

Luis Enrique has traded superstar status for a group of hard-working team players.

“For PSG they have no Neymar, no Messi, no Mbappe, all out the door, but now they are a complete side. I’ve not see forward players working so hard,” said Martin Keown on TNT Sports.

“How do you beat them? They have to be hot favourites to win this now.”

The Spaniard has brought the best out of his young side with a resurgent Ousmane Dembele involved in 12 Champions League goals this campaign – the most ever by a PSG player in the competition in one season – and Desire Doue and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia joining him in a thrilling front three.

Dembele was missing from the starting XI after picking up a hamstring injury in the first leg but Bradley Barcola has proved an effective understudy.

“This is a wonderful PSG team, with youth and a lot of energy and intensity,” said French football expert Julien Laurens on TNT Sports.

“In the front three – even without Dembele, which was a big blow for them – you see the fluidity and the energy they bring.

Mikel Arteta boldly announced Arsenal were in Paris to make history – but it was a recent history of falling short that haunted them as their Champions League campaign ended in failure.

Arsenal delivered a fine performance, but were ultimately unable to overcome Paris St-Germain, who have taken a wrecking ball to the Premier League’s elite in this tournament and now face Inter Milan in Munich in the final.

Arteta and his players were devastated as Parc des Princes exploded in pyrotechnics and deafening celebrations at the conclusion of PSG’s 2-1 win in this semi-final second leg.

Arsenal had gone the same way as Manchester City, Arsenal and Aston Villa when they faced Luis Enrique’s exciting, emerging PSG side earlier in the tournament.

And, beneath the surface, lies a very uncomfortable truth for Arteta and Arsenal.

Arsenal are now five years without a trophy, when Arteta led them to the FA Cup in 2020. For all the talk of process and progress, this is the only currency that matters for elite clubs, so time is ticking on Arteta to make his team winners again.

He is, for now, in charge of a nearly team. For all Arsenal’s excellence in the City Of Light, this darkness was the brutal reality.

No-one would seriously suggest for one moment Arteta’s job is under threat, but he is definitely under pressure to produce tangible success, which will ratchet up next season. Eventually there can be no excuses, or messages about moving forward. Arsenal need to win.

There is the basis for a top-class side with outstanding players such as Declan Rice, Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard, along with the youthful brilliance of Myles Lewis-Skelly – but top-class sides win trophies and, in that context, Arsenal have fallen short for five years.

Arsenal and Arteta’s hopes of history are now reduced to making sure they finish in the Premier League’s top five to ensure they are back in the Champions League next season.

It was a night of missed opportunities in a two-legged tie shaped by the first 20 minutes both at Emirates Stadium and here in Paris.

PSG went for Arsenal away from home and scored a decisive goal from Ousmane Dembele. The Gunners gave Luis Enrique’s side a taste of their own medicine in Paris but could not score.

PSG were chasing history of their own, as indicated by the giant tifo unfurled during the spectacular light and sound show before kick-off along the Virage Auteuil, where their Ultras gather,. It read: “55 years of memory behind you to write history”.

Goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi either side of half-time set the platform for victory, punishing Arsenal for the blunt instrument that is their attack. Saka eventually beat Donnarumma but it was all very little very late.

PSG can now chase that history in the shape of their first Champions League triumph, while Arsenal are left to ponder a fourth successive failure in a semi-final and a season that will be looked back on as an anti-climax.

For Arsenal, it is a case of what might have been and another season when Arteta’s team have been unable to bridge the elusive gap between also-rans and winners.

This was their 201st match in the Champions League, the most of any side who have failed to lift the trophy. And it was another semi-final defeat to set alongside those in the 2020-21 Europa League, 2021-22 EFL Cup, 2024-25 EFL Cup, and this exit here. It is their longest-ever run of exits at this stage.

Close but not close enough. Again.

Arsenal and England midfield man Declan Rice said: “We’re all desperate for it. That’s why we play football. We want to win trophies. We want to be at the pinnacle, winning stuff.

” For whatever reason, it hasn’t been meant to be. We’ve been really close and it’s not good enough.

“Arsenal deserve to be pushing for trophies and winning things but there’s not a lot more we can be doing. A lot of superstars have suffered defeats to come out on top. It hurts, you see the boys, the manager. We wanted to be in Munich but this doesn’t define us and we’ll be back”.

The task for Arteta now is to also prove he is a winner after a Premier League title pursuit that never got off the ground and the promise of the Champions League, including a superb win over holder Real Madrid in the quarter-final, coming to nothing.

In his pre-match news conference, Arteta bizarrely said: “Winning trophies is about being in the right moment in the right place. Liverpool have won the title with less points than we have in the last two seasons. With the points of the past two seasons, we have two Premier Leagues”.

It was a flawed argument that conveniently ignored the fact Arsenal have been in the same place at the same time as Arne Slot’s newly crowned champions this season and did not deliver.

Arteta’s maths also failed to take into account Liverpool could yet surpass the 89 points Arsenal achieved last season, and tally of 84 in 2022-23.

Arteta talked of “fine margins” and will curse Donnarumma’s brilliance over two legs, but this is what matters at this rarified level.

Arsenal were also architects of their own downfall, with Thomas Partey’s poor headed clearance only finding an unmarked Ruiz for PSG’s first, then the same player losing possession for Hakimi’s second, which effectively finished them off.

Arsenal’s serious strategic failure in not signing a striker last summer was also a factor in their elimination. And this is not post-event wisdom – it was a thorny subject then.

Mikel Merino, pressed into service away from his usual midfield role, was tireless. But he only offered a focal point, not a serious threat.

How Arsenal cried out for a reliable marksman who might have made more capital of their early domination, when they gave Luis Enrique’s side a taste of their own medicine by pinning them back with fierce salvo of attacks.

As former Arsenal and England defender Matthew Upson put it on BBC Radio 5 Live: “When PSG break away, you always feel they are going to put the ball in the back of the net. Arsenal don’t have that level”.