Mikel Arteta has told Arsenal they still have a lot to play for this season despite seeing their hopes of Carabao Cup glory ended by Newcastle.
The Gunners headed for Tyneside on Wednesday evening knowing they had little margin for error after losing the first leg of their semi-final at the Emirates Stadium 2-0, but 90 bruising minutes later they trudged off the pitch at St James’ Park having lost by the same scoreline again.
Arteta and his players, who have a free weekend after their FA Cup third round exit at the hands of Manchester United, will now head for a warm-weather training camp in Dubai before returning to resume their Premier League and Champions League campaigns.
We need your consent to load this Social Media content. We use a number of different Social Media outlets to manage extra content that can set cookies on your device and collect data about your activity.
Arteta said: “We need to swallow this one. It’s a tough one as we had a lot of expectations.
“We knew the difficulty of the task because of the result that we brought from London, but there’s nothing we can do right now. What we could do was on the pitch.
“Now we have to look forward – first of all, I think this is going to be a painful one – and when we’re in Dubai, recharge and go again because we still have a lot to play for.”
Arsenal currently sit in second place in the table, six points adrift of leaders Liverpool but having played a game more, and they have qualified for the last 16 in Europe with only the Reds and Barcelona managing better records in the group phase.
However, they will be kicking themselves after being outplayed by the Magpies over two legs, with the absence through injury of Gabriel Jesus and Bukayo Saka leaving them largely toothless, in stark contrast to the incision and potency of Alexander Isak and Anthony Gordon in particular.
Skipper Martin Odegaard delivered a frank assessment of their efforts as he reflected upon what might have been.
Martin Odegaard admitted Arsenal did not deserve to beat Newcastle (Owen Humphreys/PA)
He told the club’s official website: “It’s a tough one to take, it’s frustrating. We had a big goal to go to the final and we believed it was possible to make it happen.
“But the way we played throughout the game and throughout the two legs, we didn’t deserve it. We have to look at ourselves, improve and learn from it.
“We’re all disappointed and we should have done better. We may be a young squad, but we’ve played big games and we’ve played here many times, so I still think it should’ve been possible to do better.
“But now we have to take the lessons and move on.”