Mikel Arteta brands Arsenal as the best team in the Champions League after PSG heartbreak

Arsenal’s dreams of Champions League mortality were crushed by Paris Saint-Germain

Mikel Arteta believes no team in the Champions League has reached the standards of Arsenal this season after the Gunners crashed out of the competition within a hair’s breadth of the final.

Arsenal failed to stage an iconic European comeback against Paris Saint-Germain as the Parisians ran out 2-1 semi-final victors in the French capital, taking their aggregate advantage to 3-1 over the two legs.

It could have been a totally different outcome for Arsenal if they had managed to capitalise on early pressure, seeing a handful of glorious chances go begging inside the first 20 minutes.

But after failing to cancel out Ousmane Dembele’s winner at the Emirates from last week, goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi took the game all but out of sight - with Bukayo Saka’s 76th-minute strike failing to spark any dramatic recovery.

Arteta, who admitted he would give his proper assessment of the game when he is “a little cooler”, leapt to the defence of his players after seeing their European dreams crushed at the Parc des Princes - hailing his side as the best in the competition.

“I don't think there's been a better team [than Arsenal] in the competition from what I have seen, but we are out,” Arteta told TNT Sports.

"I am so proud of the players. They deserve a lot of credit for what they are doing in the context of the situation and the amount of injuries, probably the worst state you could arrive here as a team.

“To come here with a different context and still do that, it gives me a lot of positives for the future but tonight I am very upset."

Arsenal couldn’t stage an iconic European comeback against PSG (Action Images via Reuters)

To PSG’s rescue came Gianluigi Donnarumma, their imposing Italian stopper who kept Arsenal at bay when they knocked at the door of a potential comeback.

Following up his heroics of Villa Park with another sublime performance, he stunned the Parc des Princes to deny Martin Odegaard after seven minutes, getting down low to tip around the post after the Arsenal skipper connected perfectly to fire through a crowd of players towards the bottom-right corner.

It was one of an array of stellar saves that prevented Arsenal from ever truly threatening to spoil PSG’s party, with Arteta believing the Italian was at the heart of his side’s downfall.

"When you look at the two games their best player on the pitch has been the goalkeeper, he has been the difference for them in the tie,” Arteta added. “We were very close, much closer than the result showed but unfortunately we are out.

Gianluigi Donnarumma put in another spellbinding performance against Arsenal (REUTERS)

"After 20 minutes it should have been 3-0. There is something extra you need to go your way in the competition and it didn't. We were very close and for long periods of both games we were much better than them but we are not there and that has to hurt.

"If we want to win this competition we have to realise that. There are certain things that are on us. You shouldn't just be understanding we are out. That is not the way I look at it.

“This competition is about the boxes and in both boxes are the strikers and the goalkeepers and theirs was the best in both games.”

PSG will now face Inter Milan in the Champions League final in Munich on May 31.