ARSENAL manager Arsene Wenger has challenged his side to believe they can beat the odds and overturn a 3-1 deficit to defeat Monaco on Tuesday night and reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The Gunners jetted out to the Principality tax haven, famous for its casinos and yacht-lined waterfront, needing to rewrite the history books to become the first team to qualify when heading into the away leg having to score more than one goal to avoid elimination.
Wenger accepts his men failed to produce the required performance in London last month when they squandered numerous chances before being hit on the counter - with a potentially fatal third goal coming in stoppage time moments after Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain had grabbed a lifeline.
Monaco are also a formidable defensive force at home, having not conceded at all during the group stages earlier this season, and extended their unbeaten record at the Stade Louis II Stadium to 16 games with a 3-0 win over Bastia on Friday night.
Arsenal, though, have never lost in France, and Wenger sees no reason why his side - the FA Cup semi-finalists in fine domestic form on the back of Saturday's 3-0 Barclays Premier League win over West Ham - cannot progress.
"Monaco is in a very strong position, but we have experience, the desire and belief we can do it," said Wenger, who confirmed centre-back Gabriel Paulista had travelled after recovery from a hamstring injury.
"We want to give everything to have the greatest performance on the pitch. If we did not believe we could do it, we would not be here.
"The statistics are against us. The result in the first leg is against us. We are conscious about that.
"But no matter how big the percentage (chance) is, we have to give absolutely everything to make the stats lie, that is our desire and belief that we can do it."
Since missing several chances in the first leg against Monaco and being substituted after an hour, forward Olivier Giroud has scored three in his last four appearances, including a fierce strike to open the scoring against West Ham.
Wenger has every confidence in the French international, whom he signed from Montpellier in the summer of 2012.
"Giroud actually owes the revenge to him. He owes a great performance for himself," he said.
"He missed a few opportunities in the first leg, but what striker doesn't miss an opportunity?
"He has the ability and the right mental level."
Wenger was manager at Monaco for seven years, guiding them to the French league title in 1988 and also the French Cup.
Despite the air of sentimentality, the 65-year-old - who moved to Japan after leaving Monaco and on to Highbury in September 1996 - remains focused on the task at hand.
"For me, it is very special moment. I was a young coach here at Monaco, and stayed here for seven years," Wenger said.
"I have a lot of respect for Monaco and want to thank the whole club.
"However, the experience I have gained can help me to make the right decision tomorrow, so I am able to separate the emotion of coming back and the importance of the game.
"I am here for work and my job is for my club to win."
Asked if he thought it was worth having a bet on Arsenal when out on the town later, Wenger joked: "I stayed a lot on the football pitches and I don't think that people saw me in the casino (here)." Defender Per Mertesacker insists the squad have the confidence needed to pull off a shock result.
"We know that in the first leg we were not really up for it mentally. From the start you could feel that and at times we could feel that there was a bit of a pressure and we couldn't cope with that," he said.
"But we have moved on and improved a lot, so that is why we are very confident, even away from home, we can beat any team in the world."
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, meanwhile, believes Arsenal's run of Premier League form has brought them back into the title race, now seven points behind, albeit having played a match more.
Wenger said: "Our target is to continue to win games. It is too early to say that (title challengers) we are too far still from Chelsea, but we will give absolutely everything to come as close as possible."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article