It has been well documented that the February fixtures for Arsenal are season defining, and who could argue? With games against Liverpool and Manchester United out of the way already, they still have to play Bayern Munich at home. This game could determine the success of the club’s season as it would put them in a great adavantage to progress further in the Champions League, if they were to win and it could raise the confidence of the players massively and help them so much in terms of their challenge for the Premier League title, the F.A. Cup and the Champions League.
But this is probably Arsenal’s most difficult fixture of the season, with Bayern Munich having not lost in the league yet this season and only going from strength to strength in Pep Guardiola’s 1st season in charge of The Bavarians. It is a frightening task for Arsenal to try and accomplish but it is certainly something that Arsenal have shown that they can accomplish this season.
One player who knows all to well the threat that Bayern Munich pose is Per Mertesacker and he has warned his club to be on top of their game when Bayern Munich come to the Emirates.
“Bayern are untouchable at the moment, both in the Bundesliga and in Europe,” Arsenal were knocked out of the Champions League last year by Bayern, on away goals, but they still managed to beat Bayern 2-0 at the Allianz Arena and Mertesacker added that “the only thing that makes me positive is that we beat them in Munich last year.”
He went on to tell Germany’s Sport1.de: “That result allows us to go into the game with a cetain degree of faith. We’re going to give it our best.”
Mertesaker admitted that Bayern have gotten even better since lifting the European Cup in May last year.
“They’re a little bit better in every department under Pep Guardiola,” he said, ” They’ve set a new benchmark.
“We’re going to have to get a different result this time because the 3-1 defeat practically decided the tie last year. That was the decisive game.”