MADRID, Spain (AFP) — Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta defended his “exceptional” side against criticism on Tuesday and backed them to prove their quality in the UEFA Champions League semi-final clash against Atletico Madrid.

The English Premier League leaders scraped a 1-0 win over Newcastle on Saturday after a run of three matches without victory.

Arsenal have struggled to play with fluidity in attack and Arteta agreed his team could improve in that regard, but said reaching the final four was evidence enough of their quality.

“We have to do better… (and) we want to improve in every department,” Arteta told reporters on Tuesday.

“But at the same time, to be where we are sitting here tonight, we have to be exceptional, one of the top four teams in Europe to be here. So imagine how difficult that is.”

Arteta said his team’s morale was boosted by beating Newcastle to provisionally move ahead of Manchester City in the English title race and backed them to dominate against Diego Simeone’s side in the Spanish capital.

“After that win, a massive win for us against Newcastle, you could sense straight away the energy, the confidence coming into this game,” continued Arteta.

“It’s a massive privilege to be here again, two years in a row, in the semi-finals of the Champions League, representing our club and it’s quite an opportunity.

“We’re going to grab it with both hands. You’re going to see a team that wants to be dominant, that wants to win it, that wants to start to decide the tie tomorrow.”

Arsenal have never won the competition, finishing runners-up in 2006, and 20 years on are looking to return to the final.

“These are the stages we want to be in, and we have earned it through incredible work, passion and quality in the last nine months,” said Arteta.

“Now is the moment to make a statement and show how good we are, how much we want it, and make it happen.

“It’s clear, the opportunity is in front of us, and we have to attack it.”

The coach confirmed Kai Havertz and Jurrien Timber will not be fit to play but said Eberechi Eze and Riccardo Calafiori were ready.

Severe storms are forecast in Madrid on Wednesday but Arteta brushed off their potential impact on the first leg.

“Imagine the amount of games that we have played in different scenarios, different contexts, against different opponents,” he said.

“We’ll adapt to the conditions tomorrow in the best way possible to be ourselves and win the game.”

On Tuesday, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele scored twice each as Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) beat Bayern Munich 5-4 in an epic first leg of their semi-final — an extraordinary encounter that was the highest-scoring match ever at this stage of the competition.

The first half alone was crazy, with Harry Kane giving Bayern the lead from a penalty, only for Kvaratskhelia to equalise before Joao Neves headed the hosts in front at an enthralled Parc des Princes.

Michael Olise made it 2-2, but a Dembele penalty in first-half stoppage time had the reigning champions back ahead at the interval.

Kvaratskhelia, surely the standout player in this season’s Champions League, and Dembele both then scored again to have hosts PSG seemingly out of sight, only for Dayot Upamecano to pull one back before Luis Diaz made it 5-4.