A "pained" Mikel Arteta admitted Arsenal's Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) is "very tough to accept" - after he claimed his side could "easily" have been awarded a decisive extra-time penalty.
Arsenal's dreams of winning on Europe's biggest stage for the first time in their 140-year history ended in agony following a 4-3 shoot-out defeat, with both Eberechi Eze and Gabriel off target at the Puskas Arena in Budapest.
Kai Havertz fired Arsenal ahead in the sixth minute before Ousmane Dembele equalised from the spot when Cristhian Mosquera upended Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the second half.
Arsenal hung on to force extra time, and might have had a penalty of their own when Noni Madueke was bundled over by Nuno Mendes.
However, referee Daniel Siebert waved away Arsenal's appeals and VAR took no action. Arteta and Declan Rice were both booked for protesting in the aftermath.
And when Arteta was asked to explain his emotions, he said: "Pain."
"It is very tough to accept when you are so consistent all the way to the final and in the end you lose the trophy on penalties."
Reflecting on the decision not to award his side a spot-kick in the closing moments of the first half of extra time, he added: "I watched all the penalties in the competition in the last 72 hours to understand what a penalty is and what is not, and that easily can be a penalty."
"But it is if, if, if. It is not what happened. We need to do better, we have to improve and find different margins to get the outcome that we want."
In the shoot-out Eze dragged his spot-kick wide before David Raya provided Arsenal with a lifeline when he saved from Mendes.
Lucas Beraldo then sent Raya the wrong way before defender Gabriel, quite possibly Arsenal's best player on the night, blazed over and Arsenal's dreams of following up their Premier League title with a first Champions League triumph came to a crushing end.
Arteta continued: "He [Gabriel] wanted to take the fifth penalty. We have prepared and trained for this moment."
"Normally the penalty takers would be (the already substituted) Bukayo (Saka), Martin (Odegaard) and Kai (Havertz), and we knew that if it goes to extra time, the penalty takers would be different players."
"In training, Ebz doesn't miss any penalties. But then you have to do it in this moment. And we've been unfortunate not to have the same precision and efficiency that PSG had and that's the reason that we haven't won it."
Arsenal will leave Budapest in the early hours of Sunday morning before an open-top bus parade in the afternoon to mark their first Premier League title in 22 years.
And Arteta concluded: "First of all you have to go through that pain, digest it and turn it into fuel to improve and to reach a different level because it will demand a different level with the quality that is around Europe."
"I want to congratulate PSG, Luis (Enrique) in particular, because they are, in my opinion, the best team in the world."
For Luis Enrique, it marked his third Champions League title as a manager following his triumph with Barcelona in 2015.
"It is a dream that has come true and I'm just so happy," he said, after his side retained their crown. "This back-to-back win is incredible because it is so complicated."
"We were able to carry the game to Arsenal, dominate, and I am so happy because if I analyse the whole season we clearly deserve the trophy."
