Gabriel Paulista has confirmed that Arsenal won’t go into this week’s UEFA Champions League visit to Bayern Munich with a defensive outlook, as the Gunners still need to improve their chances of reaching the knockout stages of this year’s edition of Europe’s premier competition. They currently sit fourth in Group F, with three points from as many games.
Arsenal shocked many when they emerged from the home encounter against Bayern almost two weeks ago with a 2-0 win. However, the prospect of going to the Allianz Arena needing something is a daunting prospect, and some have assumed that the north Londoners will be going in with a defensive philosophy.
However, Gabriel has argued that following Arsenal’s resounding 3-0 win over Swansea City at the weekend, that that’s not the case.
When we play away, we also have to have a slightly different outlook, but that doesn’t mean we will spend the whole game defending.
We are a big team, we are Arsenal and we need to attack because we need the result, but we need to attack with intelligence and make sure we don’t suffer a defeat and complicate our situation for the rest of our competition. Everything is possible in football.
Bayern are an excellent team playing at home with the fans on their side, so it will be a big challenge.
If we are as determined as we have been over the last few years, I believe that we can go there and get a great result.
Arsenal have now won seven of their last 11 in all competitions, and have only suffered one defeat since the end of September, which came at the hands of Sheffield Wednesday in the Capital One Cup.
Pep Guardiola’s Bayern, meanwhile, sit five points clear at the top of the Bundesliga, and are yet to lose in the league this campaign, having also won 10 of their 11 games in the German top flight. The Bavarians will prove a tough nut to crack a second time for Arsene Wenger, but he knows the importance of Wednesday’s game.
