Arteta – “We are here to make history”

Mikel Arteta has challenged his team to answer the call of history, and overturn a first-leg deficit to reach our first Champions League final for 19 years.

We go into Wednesday night’s semi-final second leg against Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 down from last week’s match in London, but the boss is fully confident the team can create more history in making it to Munich for the final.

It would be only our second appearance in the showpiece final, after we lost to Barcelona – also in the French capital – back in 2006. 

And Arteta believes his current group of players are ready to take that next step. Speaking at the Parc des Princes on the eve of the huge match, Arteta said: "[We have] huge enthusiasm, huge energy. We are a win away from being the Champions League final, in one of the most beautiful cities in the world against a great opponent - it doesn't get much better than that. 

“We are here to make history, and we have a big opportunity tomorrow. We bring a result that gives us so much clarity about what we have to do.

“One win away from being in the final. We cannot ask for anything else. Let's not do the talking [now], let's do it tomorrow on that pitch at 9pm when the game starts. Show our best, best, best, best version and win the game.”

The boss is also taking heart from our superb away form in European football so far this season. 

We have won each of our last four games on the road in the Champions League, scoring 16 goals in the process. We haven’t conceded more than once on the road in any of our last ten European matches. Most recently of course, we earned a 2-1 win at the Bernabeu to knock out holders Real Madrid.

“I am in conviction that when we had to do it, we did it in a really convincing way against very difficult opponents,” the manager said. “So again, the last one is very recent, it's Madrid against all the odds because obviously they were talking about all the comebacks and the history and what they did. And we proved something very different to what they expected and tomorrow we want to do the same.”

Arteta added that the stage was set for our players to stand up and be counted, and become heroes: “It has to be, in football you're going to be remembered for those moments. The biggest stages are when the team needs it, when the club needs it, to deliver those moments and playing with that mindset. This kind of game is, in my opinion, the right one, and that's the work that we've done in the last few hours.”