Mikel Arteta claims that his side were devastated after crashing out of the Europa League semifinals flowing a goalless draw.
Arsenal played to a goalless draw at Emirates Stadium but the first leg deficit was enough to see Villarreal through. Arsenal missed the one chance they had to keep their UEFA champions Leagues’ hopes.
Speaking after the match, Arteta admits he was ‘devastated’ with his side’s elimination.
“We are all devastated,” Arteta admitted.
“We wanted to deliver something for this football club. Get to the final and reach the Champions League next season and give something to our fans.
“Unfortunately, today we came up short. There were moments in the second half, we hit the post twice. Then we had an empty goal to put the ball in the net.
“Small margins define these ties and today we came up short,” the Spanish explained.
“When you lose a semi-final or a final you’ll always have things you wanted to do differently. We haven’t played at our best over the two legs,” he added.
Meanwhile, Villarreal coach Unai Emery reveals that he didn’t want to hear about Gdansk.
“I knew the final was in Gdansk but I didn’t want to hear about it,” Emery revealed
“We had a very good qualifying phase and we had to beat a favorite to get to the final and we had a very serious tie against Arsenal. We knew we’d suffer today, but we’ve managed to have some less tense moments.
“I’ve tried to enjoy and live these moments. We know that if we scored a goal we’d be safe but if not, we’d suffer,” the former Arsenal coach continued.
“They’ve had tight matches at home, so we had to play a serious match so that their virtues wouldn’t appear. That’s the toughest job in football,” he added.