Mikel Arteta called on his arsenal players to use “anger, frustration, rage and disappointment” of their first league defeat in 2-1 against Bournemouth as fuel for the semi-final conflict in the semi-final of the Champions League against PSG.
The Gunners go to Paris Wednesday in the hope of overthrowing a deficit of 1-0 from the first leg, but will go to the match in the back of a very first home defeat against the cherries.
Declan Rice opened the scoring during his 100th appearance for Arsenal, but the second half goals of Dean Huijsen and Evanilson turned the game to give Bournemouth not only their very first victory outside on Arsenal, but their first double of the League on the Gunners.
It ends with a defeat.
The attention is transformed on Wednesday. pic.twitter.com/ntkmjqtael
– Arsenal (@Arsenal) May 3, 2025
The result maintains the Arteta team just three points ahead of Manchester City in third and raises the men of Andoni Iraola, who continue European football next season, to the eighth of the table.
While the boss of Arsenal was frustrated by his players, he insisted that they will have to use this anger as motivation before the trip through the chain.
“We have not created the right positive dynamics,” admitted Arteta.
“It has certainly created a lot of anger, frustration, rage, disappointment and use it all for Wednesday.
“This is what we have to do”
Despite the defeat, a positive for Arteta was that all of his players seemed to be unscathed from the match.
However, the boss of the Gunners remained close to the physical form of Jurrien Timber, who missed the match thanks to a reproached injury during the first leg, but could return on Wednesday evening.
