Arsenal vs Bayern Munich – UEFA Champions League – Preview

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Sreya

Arsenal will welcome Bayern Munich at the Emirates on Matchday 3 of the UEFA Champions League as the Gunners aim to kick-start their European campaign against the Bavarian giants. Arsenal have stuttered in both their matches so far, falling to defeats against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos. Bayern Munich, on the other hand, have taken all six points on offer, scoring eight goals and conceding none in the process.

Team News

Gabriel is Arsenal’s major injury concern after the defender missed Arsenal’s 3-0 win over Watford in the weekend. Should Gabriel make a return to the matchday squad, the only injury absentees will be Tomas Rosicky, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck. Olivier Giroud is set to return as well after the Frenchman served a one-match suspension for his red card against Dinamo Zagreb. David Ospina has started all the cup ties for the Gunners, but Petr Cech may get a look-in, considering Ospina’s mistakes against Olympiakos and the significance of the match against Bayern Munich.

Pep Guardiola will be without Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Mehdi Benatia, Mario Goetze and Holger Badstuber. Highly-rated winger Kingsley Coman is set to return to matchday squad as well.

Thoughts From Both Camps

“Playing against Bayern and their quality is of course going to be a challenge for us, but we are at home with our support and we need a similar sort of performance like we had against Manchester United. We know we can beat anyone and we are going to be completely ready for this one. We need to move on from the first couple of results in the Champions League. We know we are capable of getting results against Bayern and we want to put things right.”

– Theo Walcott, Arsenal.

“Anybody who knows about football also knows that Arsenal are better than the way they have started this season in Europe, with two defeats. They have got some very, very dangerous individuals and certainly it is not going to be easy, but we are ready. We take all of our opponents seriously, otherwise you don’t win nine games in a row in the Bundesliga.”

– Philipp Lahm, Bayern Munich.

Contributor’s Pick

Arsenal are in a serious danger of getting eliminated from Europe’s premier competition before Christmas and must win against Bayern Munich at home, to give them a realistic chance of qualifying for the knock-outs. According to Head-2-Head statistics, Arsenalhave won 25% and lost 50% of its matches. Bayern Munich have been completely unplayable in the last few weeks and are likely to win this fixture 3-1.