Mikel Arteta is already looking forward to the second leg of Arsenal's Europa League semi-final with Villarreal amid a number of key injury issues.
The Gunners' European hopes rest on winning the Europa League this season having disappointed in the Premier League, but former boss Unai Emery and Villarreal stand in their way.
The Yellow Submarine have won all but one of their games in the competition so far this season, winning 11 and drawing once, and they will be a big challenge for the Gunners.
Though, ahead of the first leg at the Estadio de la Ceramica this evening, Arteta was already looking ahead to getting key players back from injury with Alexandre Lacazette and Kieran Tierney missing for tonight's clash.
“There is excitement. This is why we play football, to play these kinds of games, and we take it as an opportunity and a challenge," he told BT Sport. "We have a good team in front of us, but there is a lot of excitement.
“It’s an opportunity to win a title. To play a final, you have to earn it. We have earned to be in the place where we are right now today, so let’s go for it.
“We’ve had a really tough period in the last few weeks with injuries and hopefully the next few weeks, we can have some players back."
Arsenal face Gerard Moreno tonight, the Villarreal forward who has 26 goals and 34 goal contributions in all from 38 appearances across all competitions this season.
Speaking about keeping the Spaniard out this evening, Arteta added: "We know that he (Moreno) is one of the key threats, but we have to focus on ourselves. The better we can do that, the more control we have, then we can control the positions of the talented players.
“It is always a special game because Villarreal have been brilliant. There’s obviously the relationship because Unai worked for the club not that long ago, so there is another ingredient.
“We don’t (have a bet). We just want to win for each club and that’s it.”
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