Arsenal to ease Champions League heartbreak with open-top bus parade

By Philip Duncan, Press Association

Arsenal will attempt to put their European pain to one side when the club’s open-top bus parade to mark their first Premier League title since 2004 gets under way on Sunday.

Mikel Arteta’s title-winning team are due to begin their 5.6-mile route through north London at 2pm – just 18 hours after their Champions League heartbreak against Paris St Germain in Budapest.

As many as half-a-million Arsenal supporters are expected to line the streets for the parade which is expected to last two hours.

The Gunners had been hoping for a double celebration by following up their league success with a first Champions League trophy in the club’s 140-year history.

However, Eberechi Eze and Gabriel both missed their penalties in Saturday’s nerve-jangling shootout to allow PSG to retain their crown.

Arteta’s crestfallen players departed their Hilton hotel in Hungarian capital in the hours after the crushing loss with the Arsenal manager vowing to use the setback as “fuel” to carry them to glory next season.

Arteta said: “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.

“I will take a few days with my family and then I will start the process to review what we’ve done.

“We will start to make some very important decisions if we want to reach another level.

“And we’re going to have to show that ambition because we are more than capable of doing it. But it’s going to demand us to be very, very ambitious, very fast and very smart.”