Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has pinpointed the individual quality of Lionel Messi as one of the reasons the Gunners haven’t been beyond the last 16 of the Champions League since 2010.
As a player, Arteta was part of an Arsenal squad knocked out at the last 16 in all of his five seasons at the club – the same happened the year before his 2011 arrival and the year after his 2016 retirement to make it seven straight exits in the first knockout round.
Now, as Arsenal boss leading the team into their first Champions League knockout game in seven years against Porto, Arteta has denied the idea of any kind of mental block existing.
“Yeah, and someone called Messi,” he replied when asked if a mental block had been a factor. “And Bayern Munich as well – this competition is where it is, individual quality.
“It’s extremely important because sometimes it comes down to details, you are through or you are out, and you have to be really prepared and you need your players at their best when the occasion arises, and for sure, we’re going to need that.”
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Even though Arsenal beat Messi’s Barcelona 2-1 in a home first leg in 2011, the megastar turned it on at Camp Nou to inspire a 4-3 aggregate victory. It was Barcelona again in 2016, with Messi scoring three times over two legs as the Catalans eased into the next round, 5-1 overall.
The Gunners were also bested by AC Milan (2012) and Monaco (2015) in the last 16, while Bayern dumped Arsenal out of the competition at the same stage on three separate occasions in 2013, 2014 and 2017.
The latter marked the start of a six-year absence from the Champions League due to a decline that set in during Arsene Wenger’s final years at the club and wasn’t overcome until finally mounting a Premier League title challenge in 2022/23 to finish second.
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