Speaking to Amazon Prime after the final whistle, Arteta expressed his delight with the result and the quality of the winning goal. "Very happy to win away from home in the quarter-finals of the Champions League against a team that have not lost at home for I don't know how long," the Arsenal boss said. "I think the last time was probably in Europe as well, that shows the difficulty of it. In the end a magic moment from the finishers win us the game. Beautiful and that's the impact you need when you get to this stage of the season. Everybody has to make an impact and they certainly did that tonight."
Despite the win, Arteta admitted his side struggled to find their rhythm in the final third, with Martin Zubimendi seeing a goal ruled out by VAR for an offside in the build-up. Arteta noted that his team needed to be more clinical to break down a resilient Sporting side that has been formidable on home soil.
"Yes, because when we got into the final third and we sat there we missed the final bit," Arteta replied when asked if he feared his side might not score. "We had to be a little bit crisper, faster, more efficient to break them down when they had that block. We had a goal disallowed and there were two or three occasions where we were close but we lacked that final pass."