Mikel Arteta said his Arsenal team had played some of their best football of the season in Saturday’s 3-0 home win over Fulham and demanded that they take the positive feelings into the return leg of their Champions League semi-final against Atlético Madrid on Tuesday.
He said: “It says to us and toward our dressing room that we keep the dream alive. hat what these guys have done, not now, but throughout the season to win that many games is remarkable. Because I think it’s going to help on Tuesday. What we want now is to use that momentum, energy and belief towards Tuesday.
“This was a critical game. We know the importance of the win and the manner that we’ve done it and the goal difference in the Premier League and because this game was going to carry a lot of energy towards the next game, which is one of the biggest in the history of this stadium. We’re going to try to make it happen.”
Asked if the first-half performance against Fulham was Arsenal’s best of the season, Arteta responded: “It certainly was one of the best. We talked about hunger, about having the ability to focus and be so determined on what we had to do.”