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Arteta - Trophy would be a turning point

13/14: Crystal Palace 0-2 Arsenal - Mikel Arteta

Mikel Arteta has urged his team-mates to maintain their focus over the coming months as winning a trophy would be a “turning point” for the club.

The Gunners were knocked out of the Champions League on Tuesday night, but are well placed in the Premier League and in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.

Arteta is confident Arsenal can finish the season with silverware, and believes it would have a dramatic effect on this group of players.

"It would give you a lift, give you belief that you can start to go in the right direction and hopefully we can do it"

Mikel Arteta

“I think it would be a turning point for the club,” the vice-captain said. “[If we won a trophy] it would give you a lift, give you belief that you can start to go in the right direction and hopefully we can do it.

“We have two competitions that we are still in. We want to fight for the league, for sure, and we have a great chance in the FA Cup as well. So we need to enjoy the moment and make the most of it because I think we can do something good.

“We know we are favourites [for the FA Cup]. We know that puts more pressure on us but we are happy with the win in the quarter-final. There is still a month to go [until the semi-final] and there are some tough games coming up.

“That’s why it is important to get some momentum for that moment and go there with belief and in good form.”

While disappointed at Arsenal’s Champions League elimination on Tuesday night, Arteta insists they can be proud of their battling display in Germany.

“Every team that has come here recently has been battered five or 6-0 so that’s the last thing you want, with the experience we had a couple of weeks ago at Liverpool,” he said. “I think [the result was] encouraging, I think the second half was very good.

“We can take a lot of positives from that, and the way we kept them pretty quiet as well. We put in a great shift.

“Even when they scored we kept believing and scored the goal from Lukas and had some situations where if we could make a better decision with the last pass we would have got the second one. And the game was on. But you are talking about probably the best team in Europe at the moment.”

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