Mikel Arteta optimistic on UCL return & determined that the club kick on from here

Mikel Arteta guided Arsenal to UCL qualification after 6 years.

Arsenal are returning to the Champions League for the first time since the 2016/17 season. Mikel Arteta’s side will host PSV Eindhoven in Group B on Wednesday.

It has been a great journey for Arsenal. Last season, they upset all the odds to finish as the runner-ups. Mikel Arteta guided Arsenal to UCL qualification after 6 years.

The Spaniard insists he never lost faith and is determined that the club kick on from here. Mikel Arteta reflected on Arsenal’s journey and said, “It feels like yesterday, but in the same way it feels like many more years ago.”

“Obviously we had some big situations to go through. We did it together and in a really powerful way as a club, with everyone that was involved in that process.

He also added, “We always believed that we were going to reach there, but something is to try to plan and then to do it. We don’t want to stop here — that is for sure. That is the aim, to continue to be better.

“Probably when we look back in a few years we will understand a lot of changes and a lot of mistakes along the way that have made us better.”

The Gunners boss is relishing making his UCL debut as a manager and has urged his squad not to take it for granted too. He continued, “Looking at the Premier League, and we’ve seen in the last five to ten years what happened, don’t take it for granted,” he said.

“You really have to earn it. It’s a really big thing to be qualifying in this Premier League for the Champions League.

“We earned it last year and this season we’re going to have to fight really, really hard to try to earn it again, that’s for sure.”

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