Mikel Arteta has urged Arsenal fans to be positive as the Gunners prepare to host Real Madrid in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League on Tuesday.
The match gets underway at 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST], but the Spaniard has called on fans to “come very early to the warm-up and create those nights that we haven’t lived many of at Emirates Stadium.”
It’s been more than a decade since Arsenal were last in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals; their 2009/10 campaign ended with a hefty 4-1 defeat to Barcelona at Camp Nou after holding the Blaugrana to a 2-2 draw in North London a week prior.
Arteta insists that Tuesday’s match against the reigning champions is an opportunity “to build moments, and a moment is being built with our people.”
Speaking in his pre-match press conference on Monday, the 43-year-old proclaimed that “at this stage, you need your home stadium to create a very, very special atmosphere to generate momentum – so let’s go.”
“I encourage everybody to go there tomorrow to play the game with us, not to be there watching it, but to play the game with us.”
“We have to create that energy, that belief and that enthusiasm to play every single action because the bonus – the confidence that that gives you – there is nothing else that can replicate that I can tell the players constantly to maintain.”
For the former midfielder, it’s simple: “At 8pm tomorrow night, 11 players [and] 60,000 people need to be really super convinced that we are ready to win and to beat them. That’s the mindset that I want.”
Arsenal v Real Madrid gets underway at 20:00 BST [21:00 CEST] on Tuesday 8th April.