File picture of Arsenal’s Per Mertesacker and Francis Coquelin warming up before the game against Swansea.
Reuters/Berlin
Confident Arsenal travel to Bayern Munich today hoping to tame the German champions for a second time in two weeks, and are promising to attack despite a string of injuries.
The English club are on a high after a fifth consecutive Premier League win at the weekend - a 3-0 victory at Swansea - and the timing of their visit to the Bavarian capital could hardly be better.
Bayern dropped their first points in the Bundesliga on Friday with a goalless draw at Eintracht Frankfurt.
It followed 10 consecutive victories from the start of the season and, coupled with their 2-0 loss at the Emirates Stadium on Oct. 20 - their first defeat in all competitions - Bayern have shed some of that invincible aura.
Arsenal’s victory over Bayern put Arsene Wenger’s side back in contention in Group F with three points. Bayern and Olympiakos have six.
“They (Bayern) will be angry,” said Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker. “We are the first team who really challenged them and beat them. They will be on the ball and try to show that they are back and better than us.”
The former Germany international added: “They are clever, the Germans. We showed that we can beat them. That is a good sign but it will be a different game at their place.
“We improved our position in the last game against Munich but we need to get something out of this game.”
Arsenal are missing key players, including Theo Walcott, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, Danny Welbeck and Jack Wilshere.
But with Olivier Giroud having scored six goals in his past six games and playmaker Mesut Ozil delivering nine assists in 10 league games, they are not prepared to sit back and defend.
“I would sign today to take a point,” said coach Arsene Wenger. “But to sit off Bayern, with their offensive quality, would be difficult to maintain for 90 minutes. We have to relieve the pressure whenever we can and try to score goals.
“That is our structure of the team, to attack. If you get our players to defend then I do not think we will be so efficient. We have to play every time we can.”
Bayern, who last season won all six home games in the competition en route to the semi-finals, are by no means in a slump, and their dominance and string of chances against defensive Eintracht was indicative of the team’s attacking instincts.
Bayern midfielder Javi Martinez expects goals to fly against Arsenal
Spain midfielder Javi Martinez expects the goals to fly in today’s crunch Champions League clash against Arsenal with hosts Bayern Munich out to avenge their London defeat.
The Gunners beat Bayern 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium a fortnight ago thanks to goals from Oliver Giroud and Mesut Ozil as Pep Guadiola’s Bayern suffered their only defeat of the season.
Bayern remain top of Group F while the win moved Arsenal up to third place after back-to-back defeats to Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb and they need to win in Munich to keep their knock-out phase hopes alive.
“We’re looking forward to the game. Both teams want to play attractive football and it’ll be a good match for the fans to watch,” said Martinez.
“I think they will put less emphasis on defence and they won’t simply stand behind the ball, both teams will try to score and I think Arsenal will attack.
“They’ll try to press and get the ball, because they need the three points.”
Bayern coach Pep Guardiola expects Arsenal to play “long balls to Giroud, which we didn’t allow in the first leg”.
“They will want to attack. This is one of the top teams in Europe,” added the Spaniard.
Arsenal are unbeaten on their last two visits to Munich’s Allianz Arena, but Guardiola is backing his team to make home advantage count to cement their place at the top of the group and put one foot in the knock-out stages.
“We lost in London, that can happen. Tomorrow is a new game—with our own fans,” said Guardiola. “I think we played well in London, but defeats can happen at this level.”
Arsenal’s German defender Per Mertesacker has said he expects Bayern to come out firing after they were “wounded” by the first leg defeat, something Munich captain Philipp Lahm has rejected and Thiago Alcantara echoed.
“We’re not wounded and we have no reason to be,” said the Spain international.
“We want to win the game, our standard is to win everything and to keep the ball.”
With veteran wingers Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben having struggled for fitness of late, Thiago highlighted the importance of Brazil forward Douglas Costa fit and in form on Bayern’s flanks.
“He is extremely important for our game. He is like a breath of fresh air, he’s fast and creates goals,” said Thiago after Costa set up 12 goals and scored three of his own since signing from Shakhtar Donetsk at the start of the season.
