Arsenal's Historic Champions League Journey Under Arteta
Mikel Arteta walked into the interview room determined to talk about character, not collateral damage.
Arsenal have taken some heavy domestic blows in recent weeks, but on the continent they stand somewhere entirely different: in uncharted territory for a 140-year-old club. A place no Arsenal side has ever reached before.
Arteta leaned hard into that history.
“This is a massive push to win the semi-final of the Champions League,” he said, the relief obvious behind the words. “It's extremely tough and we know what we've done. We deserve it, fully deserve it as well, and we're going to enjoy it because we deserve it.”
This wasn’t a night built on ideal conditions. It was stitched together without Bukayo Saka, without Martin Odegaard, without several of the players who usually carry Arsenal’s attacking rhythm and creative spark. The schedule has been brutal, the injuries unforgiving, the margins tiny. Yet the team found a way to survive, then to advance.
Arteta’s message to his players reflected that.
“My message was gratitude to them,” he explained. “I know the effort and the commitment that they have put in. There's a lot of work behind it. We've done something that has never been done in the history of our club in 140 years, so that tells you the difficulty of that, and we had to do it in a very special way, missing a lot of important players.”
That line – “never been done” – matters. Arsenal have enjoyed eras of dominance in England, Invincibles and doubles and iconic managers. Yet no previous generation has navigated a path like this one, through a modern calendar that squeezes every drop out of legs and minds.
And now, as the competition narrows, Arsenal stand alone.
The last English team standing
The result leaves Arteta’s side as the sole Premier League representative in the Champions League’s final stages. In a season where English clubs have stumbled under the combined weight of domestic and European demands, Arsenal have outlasted the lot.
“There is a reason why we are the only English team in the competition,” Arteta said. “Because this league and this schedule takes the hell out of you.”
That wasn’t self-congratulation. It sounded more like a warning and a reminder rolled into one. The Premier League’s intensity drains even the deepest squads; Arsenal’s run has come with visible strain, dips in league form, and a mounting injury list. Yet here they are, still swinging on Europe’s biggest stage.
Arteta didn’t pretend this was a finished product.
“We are not perfect, we need to improve things, that's for sure and we recognise that,” he admitted. “But there's value in what these players have done.”
That “value” now stretches far beyond a single tie or a single round. It speaks to a group that has absorbed setbacks at home, patched itself up without key figures, and still carved out a piece of club history.
The domestic questions will come again soon enough. For now, Arsenal have earned something rarer: the right to look around Europe, see no other English badge beside them, and ask how much further this run can go.
