Even though Arsene Wenger has admitted what we all suspected, that the big priority for Arsenal this season is to win the Premier League, the Frenchman also accepts that the performances of the Gunners in the first two Champions League group games was simply not good enough.
In a report on the Arsenal website the boss suggested that the defeats against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos were not merely down to his team selection and resting of big players like Petr Cech. He believes that there was an element of complacency in the whole team´s attitude because the players all expected to beat the Croatian and Greek teams, just as we expected to walk over Monaco in the knockout round last year.
The good news for Arsenal fans is that Wenger knows that he and his team need to restore some pride after the shambles of the first two games and so he is calling for a huge performance from Arsenal and it sounds as though he is planning to field as strong a side as possible.
He said, “The confidence level is there, the needed result is there as well – we know exactly what is required [because] a 0-0 is not even a good result. To score goals, we have to attack.
“It is true that [we have delivered big results] before, but we want to do it again because we feel a bit that the pain inflicted [in the Champions League] was a bit by ourselves. Maybe subconsciously we thought ‘anyway we will win these [first two games’.
“Now to correct that we need a great performance. What we want to do is play up to our level – that will be needed because we play against a big team.
“For us it a perfect run in our Premier League, and on the other hand also perfect preparation for the Bayern game because we had no injuries and we got the three points. We are now in a position where we can really focus and give everything on Tuesday night.”
So it seems as though we need to strap ourselves in for a exciting night at the Emirates stadium tomorrow, with Arsenal planning to go on the attack. That could lead to a goal fest of a game, as Bayern Munich are no strangers to scoring this season either. But who will score the most?