Sokratis has hit back at Arsenal's critics after Thursday night's 3-1 win over Valencia in the Europa League semi-final.

The Gunners bounced back from three successive Premier League defeats to put themselves on the brink of qualifying for their first European final in 13 years.

"I hear that everyone speaks about the system, the manager," said the 30-year-old. "The manager tries every day to give the best to us, to the team.

"We want to to play in the Champions League. This is the point, our manager and the staff behind him help us every day [to do that].

"We work a lot with the training, the video, we analyse everything and I hope in the end we are right."