BILBAO, Spain — Mikel Arteta said he wants to “change the history of our club” after admitting that Arsenal’s ongoing failure to win the Champions League is a “pressure” that he and his players must overcome as the Gunners begin their 2025-26 campaign against Athletic Club in Bilbao.
Arsenal, the 13-time English champions, are arguably the biggest club never to win the Champions League and have so far only reached one final — losing to Barcelona in 2006 — and three semifinals in 23 previous campaigns in Europe’s premier club competition dating back to 1971-72.
Arteta’s team were beaten by eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain in last season’s season semifinal, with the Arsenal coach saying after the second-leg that his side were the best in the competition.
But with English rivals Liverpool (6), Manchester United (3), Chelsea and Nottingham Forest (both 2), Aston Villa (1) and Manchester City (1) all having won the competition, Arteta said in Bilbao that the time has come for Arsenal get their name etched on the trophy.
“Well that tells you, with our long history, how difficult it is because we haven’t won it yet and that’s the opportunity,” Arteta said when asked about Arsenal’s failure to win the Champions League.
“That’s how I see it, but pressure is the opportunity that drives that energy and that willingness to be better every single day.
“Every decision has to be with that standard and with those expectations, so let’s give our best chance to try to do it.
“The big clubs [who have won it], they try seven, eight, nine times and they maybe win two.
“So in this competition it’s going to be one that you fail much more than you succeed. That’s the nature of it. That’s the history of our club and that’s what we want to change.”
Arsenal will be without the injured Bukayo Saka, Martin Ødegaard, Kai Havertz, Ben White and Gabriel Jesus against Athletic Club in Estadio San Mamés.
But despite the injury list, Arteta is confident and “excited” about the prospect of starting another assault on the Champions League.
“I’m very excited to started again from scratch in a beautiful place and a stadium that is going to be something special,” Arteta said. “We’re looking forward to it and I’m very excited to go step-by-step and start to get some momentum and start to have some wins.
“We all know that it’s going to be a really long journey. The margins in this competition are super small and you have to be at your very best if you want to give yourself the best possible chance.
“We are good enough that we can compete against any opposition on the day. And on top of that, you have to have things that go your way.
“You need to have a full squad available when it comes to the most critical moments in the season. And as well, when the ball has to go in the right moment or with the right decision, it has to be your way because the margins are so small.”
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Arsenal’s 3-1 aggregate defeat in the semifinal came at the end of a strong performance in Paris that had given Arteta’s side hope of reaching the final after a 1-0 first-leg defeat.
And Arteta admits that the loss in Parc des Princes still stings as Arsenal prepare to start afresh this season.
“We were very unlucky in the semifinal not to get through,” he said. “In that moment you get deflated and understand what you need to do to put yourself back in the position to do it and it gave us the conviction that the team can go all the way.
“You take a lot of learning from it. It’s painful because it’s not only what we feel it’s about.
“I think the expectation that we created and the real conviction that we had within the club, the team, that we could go all the way because we showed a very high level of consistency and quality throughout the competition and learn from it.”
