MIKEL Arteta has urged his Arsenal players to prove they have what it takes to “turn their season around”.

It’s been a tough week for Gooners, who have been left deflated after seeing their club dumped out of the Champions League on Wednesday night following a 1-0 defeat away to Bayern Munich in the quarter-final second leg – the Germans winning 3-2 on aggregate.

That disappointment arrived hot on the heels of Sunday’s 2-0 loss against Aston Villa which saw the Gunners surrender any advantages they had in the Premier League title race to Manchester City.

Calling for “love” and “support” ahead of tomorrow’s (Saturday) trip to Wolverhampton Wanderers, Arteta said: “I wish I had today the right words for the players to make them feel better. What I’m going to do for sure, all the staff, all the coaching staff, is be close to the players.

“I feel so grateful to be their coach and to work with them every single day. And what they need is that we stand right next to them, give them our support, our love, and I will have to pick it up because on Saturday we have a big, big game.

“We’re still playing for a Premier League and I would really want it. We have to show now that we are capable of turning this around.”

Admitting that missing out on a place in the Champions League semi-finals has hurt his squad, the Arsenal boss added: “We have to go through the pain tonight and tomorrow, get up and come with the same attitude we had here, and hopefully beat Wolves.”

Arsenal play twice before leaders Man City return to league action, meaning that if they can win at Wolves tomorrow and then beat Chelsea at the Emirates on Tuesday the pressure will switch to the defending champions.

Arteta continued: “What we still have to play for is beautiful and, as I said before, it’s time to be next to our players and in this moment – not when you win 10 in a row and a draw, that’s easy to praise our players and to be behind them and to say really nice things. The moment is now to be next to them.

“We have worked hard [to be where we are] for nine, 10 months, so I ask everybody to please be behind our players to support them and to see the good side of it because what they are doing is unbelievable.”

Despite admitting he was “gutted” to be out of Europe, Declan Rice echoed Arteta’s calls to now show some bouncebackability.

He said: “We’re a young group. There’s a lot of demand and pressure on us now to deliver and rightly so because we’re good at what we do. This is Arsenal Football Club, one of the biggest clubs in the world, and we need to stand tall and be counted for. We’ve got Wolves away, and that’s where our big reaction is going to happen.”