Following recent domestic setbacks, the Arsenal manager was eager to shift the narrative towards his players' resilience and the historic nature of their achievement. Arteta emphasised the immense difficulty of balancing European ambitions with a gruelling domestic schedule, particularly given the absence of key personnel like Bukayo Saka and Martin Odegaard.
Expressing his gratitude for the squad’s application under significant pressure, the Spaniard said: "One hundred per cent. This is a massive push to win the semi-final of the Champions League. 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. My message [to the players] was gratitude to them. 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."