Arsenal’s Mikel Arteta has been labelled “bitter” by former Premier League champion Robert Huth following the Gunners’ Champions League exit at the hands of Paris Saint-Germain. The Ligue 1 title-holders secured their spot in the final on Wednesday night, leaving Arsenal behind with a Premier League game against Liverpool next up this weekend.
The Gunners head to Anfield with four players missing while Liverpool has no new injury worries. Arsenal has been boosted with a transfer deal for a former Liverpool target ‘agreed’.
Luis Enrique’s PSG overcame the North London side in midweek with a 3-1 aggregate scoreline. Post-match, Arteta contended that his team had outperformed PSG across both legs, despite managing only a single goal during the 180 minutes of play.
PSG’s progression was partly thanks to Gianluigi Donnarumma, who pulled off several crucial saves. Nonetheless, the French powerhouse fully earned their victory and are now tipped as frontrunners to clinch their maiden Champions League trophy.
Arteta went so far as to suggest that even the PSG bench felt Arsenal should have advanced instead, a claim Enrique refuted. Yet, Arteta stood firm on his perspective of the encounter.
“I’m saying that and they are saying that because they (PSG) just told me that,” insisted Arteta. “First of all, congratulations for being in the final. Talking about merits, I think we deserve much more.”, reports the Mirror.
“When you analyse both games, who has been the best player, the MVP, has been the same player, the goalkeeper. The Champions League is decided in the boxes and it’s won the game for them because obviously today 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. The team that I’ve seen today against 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.”
Arteta’s remarks raised some eyebrows, and former Chelsea and Leicester star Huth has now criticised the Arsenal manager. The German even suggests that these comments could negatively impact the Gunners for the remainder of the season.
“Yeah, bit of a ridiculous comment, isn’t it? ,” Huth voiced on talkSPORT. “Clearly at least two better than them. I think those kind of comments, you can see why people don’t like Arsenal. If you listen to that from the outside, you find it so frustrating.
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“When you lose, you shake hands, move on and wish them all the best and then get on with it. But these comments don’t help. Heat of the moment, bitter maybe, that he’s lost to a better team twice.
“But I find it difficult to understand how he got to that conclusion. Because they were well beaten over two games. Arsenal had chances and Donnarumma did some good saves, but that’s what he’s there for, isn’t it?”.
“Declan Rice had an unbelievable game in Madrid, but no-one said, ‘You had Declan in your team, that’s why you won.’ I think that kind of conversation you have in the changing rooms with your team afterwards when you think you were better than the other side.
“But to air it to everyone to listen to it globally is wrong. When he says stuff like that, the reason we’re talking about it is because he said it. The next game in the league, there’s even more pressure on the team. With second on the line, teams chasing them down, it’s just going to be even more pressure on Arsenal.”
