Wenger ‘n a prayer Arsenal targets ‘impossible’

Arsène Wenger has said there is no reason why his Arsenal side cannot match Bayern Munich in their Champions League encounter. The Germans visit the Emirates Stadium in imperious form, having just set a record for the best start to a domestic season with their ninth consecutive Bundesliga victory.

Pep Guardiola’s men have also dominated the European campaign, with a 100% record from both Group F matches so far, netting eight times without reply.

Arsenal, meanwhile, have suffered successive defeats from their first two Champions League fixtures to sit bottom of the table and facing a battle to qualify for the last 16.

“What we want to do tomorrow is win the game. We want to defend well, attack well, score the first goal, that is massively important in the big games,” Wenger said.You can never promise you will score three goals in 20 minutes because that would be absolutely crazy. What we can do is start in a strong way and that is what we will try to do.”

Wenger feels Arsenal need to show a completely different attitude from when they were beaten away by Dinamo Zagreb on matchday one and then slumped to a 3-2 home defeat by Olympiakos.

“We have some ground to make up in Europe as we have not been at our requested level in our first two games,” said Wenger, who will have the centre-back Gabriel available again following illness, although the reserve goalkeeper David Ospina has a shoulder injury. 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.” He added: “We have the needed belief and confidence that we are doing something right, so that helps. We maybe could be a little suspected of not taking the first two games at the level of not taking the opponent seriously enough, so this time this is not the threat. Let’s take the positives of our Premier League[form] and as well get the right focus that you get when you play a big opponent.”

Meanwhile, Pep Guardiola expects to face a backlash from Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday when Bayern Munich take on the Gunners in the Champions League. While the German champions have taken six points from their opening two European games this season, Arsenal are still looking to get off the mark. And because of that, the Spaniard believes Arsene Wenger's men have a distinct advantage