Wenger aiming to tame ‘invincibles’
ONE by one, some of the greatest players in the history of the game will step off Bayer n Munich’ s branded Champions League bus when it pulls up at the Emirates this evening.
There is an aura about Pep Guardiola’s team, an air of invincibility after nine successive victories in the Bundesliga and two convincing wins i n the Champions League. They look and feel menacing.
The names of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Mario Gotze, Thiago Alcantara, Philipp Lahm and the sweeper-keeper Manuel Neuer are football’s equivalent to the Harlem Globetrotters. Little wonder, then, that Arsene Wenger joked about sleeping badly as he contemplated his team selection for a game Arsenal are under huge pressure to win. This Bayern team oozes class.
‘You have to respect Bayern — historically they have won the European Cup five times and Arsenal zero,’ admitted Wenger, who was uncharacteristically deferential when he appeared at the official UEFA press conference.
‘We cannot say historically we are at the same level as Bayern because they have done it in the past — they have the history and the knowledge. What we want is to get there.
‘We will look at the potential performance on the day. After that, history doesn’t play the game.
‘We want to win the Champions League, but the obsession at the moment is to stay in it, not to win it.’
They are in a spot of bother in Group F because Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by Dinamo Zagreb and were then surprisingly defeated at the Emirates by outsiders Olympiakos.
Wenger’s decision to rest Petr Cech for the 3-2 defeat against the Greeks backfired when Colombian keeper David Ospina made a catastrophic error when he took the ball over his own goal-line after failing to collect Kostas Fortounis’s corner.
It has left them playing catch-up in the group phase against a team which has already scored eight times without reply i n their opening two games.
‘We maybe could be a little suspect of not taking the first two games, and the level of the opponent, seriously enough, but let’s take the positives from the Premier League and make sure we have the right focus for a big opponent,’ said Wenger.
‘ Our focus has been much stronger in the Premier League than it has been in Europe and we know in this game the focus needs to be exactly the same as in the Premier League.
‘We have some ground to make up in Europe as we have not been at our requested level in our first two games. We have played great Bayern teams, at least as good as this one, and beaten them.
‘The one that made the Treble with (Franck) Ribery at full power, (Arjen) Robben at full power and ( Toni) Kroos, ( Bastian) Schweinsteiger and Muller in midfield, so I believe we have played good Bayern sides and got good results against them.’
It is 10 years since Arsenal beat Bayern Munich at home, when Thierry Henry’s strike at their old Highbury stadium made its way past Oliver Kahn. Wenger’s team still went out on aggregate.
This is another big night for Arsenal, given a puncher’s chance against Guardiola’s free- scoring Bayern team as they attempt to transfer their Premier League form to the grand setting of the European stage.
Wenger has huge respect for Guardiola, recognising his exceptional achievements with Barcelona, where he twice won the Champions League, and Bayern Munich in just seven years as a coach.
‘He has done a magnificent job at Barcelona and now he does very well at Bayern as well,’ added Wenger.
‘He is a very good manager, he has a positive philosophy and he gets his teams to play. I respect that highly as it is not easy.’
The Arsenal boss was full of praise for this Bayern team and had already conceded that they are the best club team in the world by the time he got round to speaking about Lewandowski, who is scoring goals for fun.
‘The best way to combat him is for us to have the ball,’ he said. ‘After that you have to be shrewd with him because inside the box he is outstanding.’
I f they can keep the Pole muzzled this game must be won by either Mesut Ozil or Alexis Sanchez because they are not the types to be intimidated by the intensity of Bayern’s game.
Wenger added: ‘In Europe it is true we have been poor in our first two games. That is what we want to correct.’