Luis Enrique hits back at Arteta as Wenger rejects his bold post-match claim

Arsene Wenger and Luis Enrique both disagreed with Mikel Arteta’s claim that Arsenal have been “the best team” in the Champions League this season.

PSG won 1-0 at the Emirates courtesy of an Ousmane Dembele goal, but the French side didn’t require their Ballon d’Or candidate to get over the line at home, with Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi scoring the goals to end the Gunners’ Champions League dream.

Arteta reckons his side deserved to reach the final based on their superiority across the two legs against the French giants, and made the bold blame that the Gunners have been the best side in the competition as a whole this season.

“I don’t think there’s been a better team in the competition from what I’ve seen,” Arteta told TNT Sports.

“But we are out. We deserved much more but this competition is about the boxes, the strikers most of the time and the goalkeeper and theirs was the best player in both games.

“I’m so proud of the boys, they deserve lots of credit for what they’re doing and the amount of injuries. We arrived here in the worst state. You have to get here with everyone fit and available with lots of minutes. They had a week. We came here in a different context. That gives me a lot of positivity for the future.”

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Ex-Arsenal manager Wenger disagreed with Arteta’s claim and said PSG were in fact “better than Arsenal” across the two legs.

“I would say tonight we have seen another PSG,” he told beIN SPORTS.

“They were not guided by possession or brilliant football but guided by a refusal to concede goals and taking advantages on the counter-attacks.

“I would say mentally they were strong as well. They hung in there when they missed the penalty. With Arsenal we have seen a reoccurrence of being unable to score goals.

“Overall in the two games I would say they were better than Arsenal, they had more chances and were never really in danger.

“So congratulations to Paris Saint-Germain. I said a long time ago sitting here that PSG would not be far from winning the Champions League.

“And let’s not forget they can still have the perfect season with the double in France, the Champions League and the Club World Cup.

“That would be an extraordinary success for Luis Enrique, [PSG owner] Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Paris Saint-Germain.”

PSG boss Enrique also disagreed, claiming Arsenal “played in a clever way” but that his side “deserved to get to the final” across two legs.

“Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all,” Enrique said.

“They played in a clever way and they got the match to the right moment for them because they played in the way they wanted, and the way they love. But in the two legs we scored more than them and that is the most important thing in football.

“Arsenal played a great match, and we suffered, but we deserved to get to the final.

“They are a great team, but I repeat, we scored more goals, we played in a great way in the first leg, and the second half of the second leg was a different match, and we could have scored even more goals.”

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