‘Arsenal need support and love,’ says Arteta

Mikel Arteta says he must show his Arsenal side “support and love” after Bayern Munich knocked them out of the Champions League.

Joshua Kimmich’s second-half header in Germany gave Bayern a 1-0 win on the night, and a 3-2 aggregate victory in their quarter-final.

It was a second successive defeat for Arsenal, who lost control of the Premier League title race last Sunday as Aston Villa beat them 2-0.

“I wish I had the right words to say to the players to make them feel better. What I am going to do – and all the coaching staff too – is to be close to the players.” Arteta said. 

“I feel so grateful to be the coach and to work with them every single day.”

Arsenal were chasing a first Champions League semi-final spot since 2009, with Arteta accepting his team were inexperienced at this stage of the competition. This was their first quarter-final appearance since 2010.

“We haven’t played this competition for seven years and we haven’t been in this stage for 14 years,” he said. “There’s a reason for it. 

“We want to do everything fast-forward, super-quick, in one season. I think we have the capacity and the quality to be in the semi-final because the margins are very small. 

“Those margins are coming from something else that maybe we don’t have yet. We have to learn it. 

“When you look historically, it took other clubs seven, eight or 10 years to do it. Today, that’s not going to make us feel better that’s for sure.”