It was their biggest away win in the competition in 21 years.
“Yes, because it is a team that is in top form,” Arteta said when asked if they'd made a "statement" with the result. “don’t think they’ve lost a game here in 18 months so that tells you the level and the difficulty of it but I saw the team really convinced with a great energy and a belief that we could do it.
I was so pleased, against Inter there were some things that didn’t go our way, but I said to them, we continue to go in that direction, we are going to win some big, big matches in this competition and today we have managed to do that.”
Arteta insisted it was a team performance.
“Yes, especially the purpose and the way that each player was playing to make something happen, not to wait, not to hope, no. To make it happen and I love that. When you come to this stage it is difficult, the crowd is there, the opposition is top, and they showed today as well in many moments how good they are. That’s what I’m very, very pleased with.”
On the away fans, he added: “Incredible, thank you so much for making the effort to come and support the team in that manner, I think it was 3,000 of our own so thank you so much, it makes such a difference hopefully they can enjoy tonight.”