Mikel Arteta feels Arsenal’s capacity to “adapt to very different contexts” would help them much when Paris Saint-Germain visits Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
With a club-record 31 goals in the competition—14 of which have come away from home, against the champions of the Netherlands (PSV Eindhoven), Portugal (Sporting), and Spain (Real Madrid)—the Gunners have lost only once in 12 matches in Europe this season.
Arsenal can also get optimism from their past group-stage triumph against PSG, a calm 2-0 triumph that Arteta thinks will inspire confidence in his team even if the French side has improved since that match.
Arteta said, “You’ve seen firsthand the way we approach the game against Real Madrid, the way we approach the game when we played [PSG] before, the way we approach every week.” Quessed on the bravery his team must exhibit before PSG’s return to north London. That will not change; that is who we are, our strongest suit. The beautiful thing about us is that we can fit rather varied settings and have once more demonstrated this season. One major strength is that occasionally, you might not want to, but the teams might take you to a new game and make you feel comfortable playing that game and overcoming that game with yourself in a position where you play more of the game you want. We have once more shown our capacity to do so this season.
Turning especially back on the October victory, Arteta said: “I loved the presence, how we went out there, our body language, the intensity, how aggressive we were.”
When you are against strong opponents, you must immediately put the game in that context. We played with actual belief and will.
“I believe we picked knowledge from one another,” he said.
“We valued it as they were regularly performing and among the greatest teams in Europe at the time. Their coach is first-rate. They have lately spent some time together. This preparation will help you enter that category and level and say: “Actually, we can compete, and we can beat them.” This will help you right now.
Recently adopting the motto “make it happen,” Arteta has spoken fervently about the chance his players have to write a fresh chapter in the club’s annals. European triumph is still elusive, even though Arsenal has become a worldwide force over the past 30 years.
Regarding controlling the weight of expectation, Arteta said: “For me, it’s irrelevant. That is a legacy of ours. Though the past is the very far past and the very short past as well, we can learn from that. The short history intrigues me greatly since it will assist the squad in being in the state they are in now, using many things to be better tomorrow, and winning again.
He said to live in the now. Right now is where we are. We really are lucky. We invested so much in it to land us in this state. We worked hard and had great excitement since we overcame many obstacles and competed for ten months at the highest level. We do get it right now. Live the moment right here and now. That is a lovely moment. Let us appreciate it and live it.
