Mikel Arteta rejects sympathy over Champions League exit as Arsenal end 2024/25 without a trophy

"I don't want anybody talking about it."

Mikel Arteta is taking little solace from Arsenal's first Champions League semi-final in 16 years. It has been a season of progress in Europe for his side, who not only reached that milestone - for only the third time in their history, too - but also saw off 15-time winners Real Madrid on their way.

But it is not enough. When the curtain comes down on 2024/25 it will do so with Arsenal about to enter their sixth season since they last lifted silverware. What will likely be a hat-trick of Premier League runners-up spots, and that run to the final four in Europe this season, has cemented a feeling of being always the bridesmaid, never the bride.

Speaking to Sky Sports ahead of a trip to league winners Liverpool and what Arteta admits will be a painful guard of honour for the newly-crowned champions, the Gunners boss says he is more interested in talking about why they missed out on Champions League glory - and does not dispute the outside noise about the need for greater attacking threat.

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"We wanted to win the Champions League, and we believed we could," he said. "That's the spirit. If someone says 'Oh, but we have this,' I don't want anybody talking about it.

"Wednesday was one of the saddest but proudest nights I have had as Arsenal manager. I want to talk about one, why we didn't win it, and what we have to do now to win it. That's what has to drive this club, and everybody involved in it.

"A lot of things have to go your way. What we did was increase the probability, and made that very high that we would reach the final. But we missed too many big chances. We can give credit to them, they had the best goalkeeper in the world saving those moments.

"I understand the narrative [about signing a No 9]. When you create five expected goals but only score one, it's going to happen. It's normal.

"We look at the things with much more data and resources than many people, but a lot of people have very good intuition on what is needed - and it's good to listen to those opinions.

"We have a very clear vision from the ownership, the owner and the board, the new sporting director, we are all aligned on what we want to do. We are very close to achieving it - and that's it.

"Some days it will be sunny, then the storm will come. You have to go through every single day, lift your head up, make sure that you're doing your very best in a very honest way and you're fully believing what you can do. Then it will come."

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Arsenal's injury list has dwarfed that of their title rivals and is something Arteta has referenced at periods where his squad has become especially stretched.

Reflecting on where both their Premier League and Champions League campaigns had slipped away, he suggested his backroom staff's soul-searching had already questioned whether it was indeed something beyond their control - or another "probability" they could improve upon next season, through changes in training or having a bigger pool of players to select from.

"The injuries I think have been a nightmare in terms of selecting line-ups, substitutions, how we change training sessions - because we have had times without a lot of players available," he said.

"That's when you want to really raise the standards, win and be much better than the opposition in this league, in this context. It's very demanding and very tricky.

"We had three or four big injuries, and it's very difficult to prevent them all. Can we do something different? The luck could have been different, the training could have been different, the gym could have been different, prevention can be different.

"We will look at all those things to try to be better and the reality is that the starting point and the numbers that we had in the beginning to start the season were very, very low and we accepted the challenge because it's what we could do at that moment."

Watch Liverpool vs Arsenal on Sky Sports Premier League from 4.15pm on Sunday, kick-off 4.30pm.

(c) Sky Sports 2025: Mikel Arteta rejects sympathy over Champions League exit as Arsenal end 2024/25 without a trophy