Mikel Arteta has urged his Arsenal players to channel the immense pain of their Champions League final defeat into immediate motivation for the upcoming campaign.
The Gunners fell agonisingly short of completing a historic continental treble, suffering a nerve shredding penalty shootout loss against Paris Saint-Germain in Budapest just days after parading the Premier League trophy through North London.
Speaking to club media on Monday, Arteta insisted that while the conclusion was devastating, the overall campaign represents a monumental milestone for his progressive project.
“That with our long history [we haven’t won it] tells you how difficult it is," he said. "That’s the history of our club and that’s what we want to change.
“The pressure is the opportunity that drives us, that gives us energy, and every decision has to be up to those standards and those expectations so that we have our best chance.
"It is that in that moment [of defeat] that you get deflated and have to understand what you have to do to get back in the same position.
“It is painful: not just in how we feel but [because of] the expectation we created and the real conviction that we could go all the way because we showed a very high level of consistency and quality. So we have to learn from that and try to get better.”
