Mikel Arteta urged his Arsenal side to use their back-to-back cup defeats as motivation ahead of facing Sporting CP in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final. 

The Gunners take on Sporting at Estadio Jose Alvalade on Tuesday having suffered a shock exit from the quarter-finals of the FA Cup to Championship side Southampton. 

Arsenal also entered the international break on the back of a defeat to Manchester City in the EFL Cup final, with Nico O'Reilly's double sealing the victory at Wembley Stadium. 

The Premier League leaders have now lost back-to-back games in all competitions for the first time this season, with their hopes of a historic quadruple quickly dashed. 

Arsenal are nine points clear of City in the top flight, though Pep Guardiola's side do have a game in hand, while they are among the favourites to win the Champions League.

But when asked whether he had to guard against any panic creeping into his squad, Arteta said: "I think what you have to be is clear.

"Instead of panic, understand if that [losing games] happens, why it happened, and bring clarity. And when you analyse that, and you accept that, you'll be better.

"That's it, and that's the thing that we have to do. Have some perspective on how difficult we have been up to now.

"Then, feel that pain, feel that emotion and use it to be better and to improve. We were very clear on what happened, the reason why it happened.

"Watching the game two times, we didn't deserve to lose that match, but this is football, and we get punished for things that are related to our identity.

"That's the thing that we need to defend in the strongest possible way because that's the reason why we are where we are today.

"So, [we are] hungrier than ever, very excited and very, very motivated for tomorrow's game."

The Opta supercomputer assigns Arsenal a 78% chance of reaching the semi-finals of the Champions League, along with a 28% probability of winning the competition. 

Arsenal have been eliminated from five of their eight Champions League quarter-final ties. However, they beat Real Madrid at this stage last season and are looking to reach the final four in consecutive campaigns for the first time.

However, the Gunners have never won away against Portuguese opposition in the knockout stages of a major European competition before (D4 L2), most recently a 1-0 loss at Porto in the 2023-24 Champions League last 16.

Their task will be made even more difficult after Arteta confirmed that both Bukayo Saka and Jurrien Timber would miss the match through injury, though Gabriel Magalhaes, Declan Rice and Leandro Trossard all trained before flying to Lisbon.

"They're having trouble. They're not ready yet. Let's see," confirmed Arteta. "Hopefully, they're going to be ready for the weekend if everything goes well.

"That's a massive boost because in recent days, we lost so many important players. And that's something that. that we need to change immediately."