Arsenal coach Mikel Arteta admitted Champions League winners Paris Saint-Germain are the best team in the world after his team fell to defeat in the final on penalties on Saturday.
Following a 1-1 draw after extra-time, PSG clinched the Champions League for a second consecutive season with a 4-3 shoot-out victory.
Arteta said all he was feeling was “pain”, and admitted his Arsenal side, who won the Premier League this season, was not at the same level as the French champions who dominated the ball throughout.
“I want to congratulate PSG, Luis (Enrique, the coach) in particular, because in my opinion they are the best in the world,” Arteta told reporters in Budapest.
“What they are able to do with the ball, with individual actions, I haven’t seen it (before), and it’s not a plan to play in certain scenarios when you don’t have the ball but they force you to do that. So even more praise to the players.”
Arsenal had under 25 per cent possession in the game, defending resiliently against waves of PSG pressure.
The Ligue 1 winners equalled the record of 45 goals scored in a Champions League campaign with Ousmane Dembele’s second-half penalty, to level Kai Havertz’s early opener for Arsenal.
Arteta was unhappy with the decision not to award Arsenal winger Noni Madueke a penalty with the score tied at 1-1 but accepted his team had to improve further still if they are to win the Champions League.
This was their second appearance in the competition’s final, 20 years after the first in which they lost against Barcelona in Paris.
In nearly seven years at the helm Arteta has helped bring Arsenal back to the top of the game, winning the English title after a 22-year wait, but he insisted further change was necessary.
“The same progression that we had in the last few years, we’re going to have to do that over again, and the level is increasing every single season,” explained the Spanish coach.
“You have to go through that pain (from tonight), digest it and turn it into fuel to improve and to reach a different level, because it demands a different level with the quality that is around Europe.”
