Arsenal’s (L-R) English striker Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, French defender Laurent Koscielny, French midfielder Mathieu Flamini, German midfielder Mesut Ozil and English defender Kieran Gibbs attend a training session at their London Colney training ground in Hertfordshire, north of London, yesterday. (AFP)

Reuters/London


Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger is confident the Gunners can cause an upset against Bayern Munich and open their Champions League account when the German champions visit the Emirates Stadium today.
Arsenal’s hopes of advancing from the group stage of the continent’s premier club tournament for a 16th straight season are dangling by a thread after damaging losses to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos Piraeus in their first two fixtures.
If the North London club were to lose again, it would be difficult to see them advancing and they cannot afford to drop any more points when Bayern visit for the third time in four seasons.
The home side’s defence will need to be at their very best to keep Bayern in check with in-form striker Robert Lewandowski, who has scored 22 goals for club and country this season leading the German side’s attack.
Arsenal, however, will be banking on their own red-hot marksman Alexis Sanchez to continue his fine run of form to give them the edge after the Chilean forward took his tally to 10 goals in six matches with a strike against Watford on Saturday.
Wenger believes his team have the right confidence levels after their run of impressive results in the Premier League, including a 3-0 win over Manchester United before the international break and an identical victory over the Hornets.
“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,” Wenger told the club website (www.arsenal.com).
“Maybe subconsciously we thought ‘anyway we will win these (first two games)’,” the Frenchman added.
“Now to correct that, we need a great performance. The confidence level is there, we know exactly what is required (because) a 0-0 is not even a good result. To score goals, we have to attack.”
Wenger confirmed later on Monday that Colombian goalkeeper David Ospina, who was surprisingly picked ahead of Petr Cech against Olympiakos and conceded an own goal in the 3-2 defeat, is injured and will not be available.
But he denied that he might leave out Sanchez after a recent heavy schedule.
He also spoke of his admiration for Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, saying he respected the former Barcelona manager’s “positive philosophy”.
“But we played great Bayern teams (in the past) and beat them,” he added. “There is no team without weaknesses.”