Mikel Arteta has reiterated that the supporters all have a huge part to play when we host Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of our Champions League semi-final next week.
He called on the Emirates Stadium faithful to be fully involved and create another special night, just as they did when we beat Real Madrid 3-0 at home in the last round.
“The message is that they have to play every ball with us,” the boss said. “So I would say bring your boots, your shinpads, your shorts, your T-shirts! And let's play on Tuesday night all together here to have one of the most amazing nights at the Emirates.”
The manager was speaking after our 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace on Wednesday, but refused to accept that the upcoming Champions League game was a factor in the performance.
“I don't want to use that excuse,” he said. “After Madrid, we had a game against Ipswich, which is very tough, and we did incredibly well. And today, we were simply not at the standards required to really be at our level to fill that gap between the two teams, and the game was always dead in the air. When that happens and you are ahead, you have to kill it and take the three points.
“I’m very disappointed with the result,” he added, “and disappointed as well with some parts of the performance. It was a tough match, and credit to them for the way they set up, and they made life difficult for us.
“But we were twice ahead and without playing our best game because we never found the consistency in our play and phases to completely dominate it, grab the game and take it where we want it.”
With no fixture this weekend, we now have six days until the PSG game, and the boss outlined the schedule for the next week.
“Now we need to recover mentally and physically. And we need some players back because we haven't trained with a lot of players, because they're managing issues, or they haven't been fit.
“We need a really good block of work now to get the best feeling, the best preparation and get the energy back to have an amazing night here on Tuesday night.”
Copyright 2025 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.