Mikel Arteta sends telling message to Arsenal stars ahead of Real Madrid clash

Mikel Arteta has told his players to write their own story with a “statement” win over .

described the quarter final showdown as the biggest game of his own managerial career. But Arteta firmly believes his players are ready to step up and take their place on European football’s biggest stage by defeating the 15 time winners.

When asked whether need to make a big statement against Real Madrid to join the elite, Arteta said: “That’s exactly what we need.

“To create that, you have to go through hurdles and we’ve been though one to reach the quarter final for the first time in a long time and now we’ve done it twice in a row.

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“It's been 20 years since we had this type of game and for us, it's a great opportunity to build our own story and this is what we're here for.

“Now we want much more and we are capable of doing, very capable of doing it. I have full belief that we can do it and the team, and everybody in the stadium, will feel the same way.”

Arsenal had not reached a quarter final in 14 years before going out to last year and now have reached back-to-back quarter finals. They have never won the trophy and the furthest they ever got was the 2006 final which they lost to .

But Arteta insisted that Arsenal will not have any fears of Real Madrid and also urged his players to play the opposition rather than their history.

Arteta said: “That’s very important because that’s not something we can interfere with and also because the more convinced we are in ourselves, the more we feel it, the less they will have and we must not give them any opportunity to use against us.

“Our mindset is going to be very, very important. I love to compete against the best, I love to be challenged against the best in a competition that has something very, very special that we don’t have any history of winning in it as a football club.

“So the hunger and the desire… nobody can have more hunger and desire than us. It is impossible.”

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