Champions League glory a ‘bigger destination’ for Arsenal after finally winning Premier League

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Winning the Premier League just isn’t enough.

That was the message Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta and his players conveyed on Friday as they set out their determination to deliver the best season in the club’s 140-year history by also becoming European champions for the first time.

“When you get the taste of winning and lifting a trophy, you know how nice it feels,” Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard said, a day before playing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final.

“And we want to do it again.”

A suggestion by a reporter that Saturday’s title match at Puskas Arena might be a “free hit” for Arsenal was immediately shot down by Arteta.

His players, Arteta insisted, now “want more.”

“The ambition is bigger,” the Spanish coach said. “We have one, and we want the second one, and that’s what we’ve been talking about.

“There has to be a platform to reach bigger destinations, and I’m going for more. The team is capable of it.”

Arsenal ended its 22-year wait for a Premier League title by outlasting Manchester City this season, setting off an explosion of joy in north London and beyond.

Tens of thousands of fans filled the streets to celebrate. Congratulations filtered down from the British Prime Minister. New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani was seen wearing Arsenal-branded clothing when he joined residents across the city for Eid al-Adha prayers this week.

This is widely regarded as Arsenal’s moment in the English game, with Manchester City potentially vulnerable following Pep Guardiola’s exit and other rivals in English soccer — like Liverpool and Chelsea — going through difficulties or a transitional period.

Yet the Gunners have also risen to the summit of European soccer, topping the league phase of the Champions League with eight straight wins and reaching the final without being beaten along the way.

All those near misses are in the past. Arteta said he was even encouraged watching back replays of Arsenal’s semifinal exit at the hands of PSG last season, saying he felt his team deserved more.

“This was a long way away, trying to win the Premier League and the Champions League,” said Bukayo Saka, the England winger who has come through Arsenal’s academy and is the sole survivor from the FA Cup-winning team from 2020 — the only previous time the team won a trophy under Arteta.

“It feels like this last week it has all become a reality,” Saka added. “I’m excited about the opportunity to win another trophy and create history for the club that I love.”

PSG ‘already in the history books’

PSG is also trying to create some history by becoming just the second team — after Real Madrid from 2016-18 — to successfully defend the title since the competition was rebranded as the Champions League in 1992.

PSG coach Luis Enrique said his team had “already gone down in the history books as one of the best in the world” and disagreed with the sentiment that this final meant more to Arsenal, which is going for a first Champions League title.

“Yes, that’s powerful,” Luis Enrique said. “But do you know how powerful it is winning a second Champions League in a row? It’s bigger.”

___

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer