Mikel Arteta backed his Arsenal players and called for patience after they were knocked out of the Champions League by Bayern Munich.
Joshua Kimmich’s second-half winner following a 2-2 draw in the first leg saw the Gunners exit the competition at the quarter-final stage.
But Arteta insists his side were not far off being able to progress.
“The club has been without playing in the Champions League for seven years,” he told TNT Sports.
“You want make the semi-finals or the final, we all want it so badly, but you can see in many other clubs it takes sometimes six or seven years to get to that stage.
“But we were very close, that’s the reality.”
Kimmich headed in from Raphael Guerreiro’s cross just after the hour-mark to send the Gunners home and Arteta says he found it difficult to find the words to say to his players after the defeat.
He said: “I cannot find the right words to give them, I wish I had.
“We tried, against a team that has a lot of experience, and through the tie I think the margins have been very small.
“In moments we could have been better. We gave them two goals in the first leg which is a big advantage to give away.
“The margin of error was zero and we made a mistake defending the goal, a big one, and then it was difficult. We tried in many different ways but it’s difficult.
“It is the moment to stay next to the players, to give them support and stick with them, because they are the ones that have taken us on this journey.
“I think we were better than them and had a lot of moments of dominance but that spark around the box is what you need in this tie.”
