Champions League exit not the end of Arsenal’s season, says Arteta

Arsenal's players were stung by their Champions League quarterfinal exit on Wednesday but manager Mikel Arteta said they still have something “beautiful” to play for in the last few weeks of the season as they chase the Premier League title.

Arsenal campaign in Europe's elite club competition came to an end with a 1-0 defeat by Bayern Munich at Allianz Arena in Munich and follows their elimination from both domestic cup tournaments.

The north London club are still in the hunt for the league title, however, sitting second on 71 points, level with Liverpool and two behind leaders Manchester City.

With City in action in the FA Cup this weekend, Arsenal can return to the top of the table with a win at Wolverhampton Wanderers on Saturday.

“What [the players] need is that we stand right next to them, give them our support, our love, and I will have to pick it up because on Saturday we have a big, big, big game,” Arteta said.

“We're still playing for the Premier League and I really want it. We have to show now that we are capable of turning this around.

"[The pain] is there and it's not going to go away, certainly tonight, but I can guarantee you by tomorrow we are fully focused on Wolves and everybody's lifted.

“What we still have to play for is beautiful.”

This was Arsenal's first season in the Champions League since 2017, and their first quarterfinal since 2010, and Arteta said small margins separated the clubs at this stage of the competition.

“Those margins sometimes are coming from something else, that maybe we don't have yet,” he added.

“We have to learn it, when you look historically, all the clubs to get to certain stages, it took them seven, eight, some of them 10 years to do it.”

Departing Bayern coach Thomas Tuchel said he was relieved after his team reached the semifinals.

Tuchel, who became the first German coach to lead three different teams to the last four of the Champions League, will leave a year early after a disappointing domestic run.

Bayern will not win any domestic silverware this season after their 11-year-reign as Bundesliga champions was ended by Bayer Leverkusen and their bad run led to club bosses to part ways with Tuchel at the end of the season.

“The semifinal is a huge step. The last four, that was fun. Great joy and great relief,” Tuchel said.

“These are special moments. We beat one of the top Premier League clubs. We will have to see what this win does to the club. The season is not yet over. Especially not now.”

Joshua Kimmich powered in a 63rd-minute header to give the Germans victory.

Germany international Kimmich timed his run into the box perfectly to connect with a Raphael Guerreiro cross and put Bayern, who had earlier hit the woodwork twice from a double chance, in the driving seat after a 2-2 first-leg draw.

The visitors, bidding to reach the competition's semifinals for the first time since 2009, failed to show any sense of urgency in the second half with the hosts in complete control.

The Bavarians, enduring their worse domestic season in more than a decade after failing to win both the Bundesliga title and the German Cup, will face Real Madrid in the last four.

Reuters