Arsenal has fallen on rough times lately and enters their matchup Tuesday at Emirates Stadium in the Champions League Round of 16 against Bayern Munich looking for a turnaround.
The club comes into the game off of a tough 1-0 FA Cup loss on Saturday against the Blackburn Rovers and will need to shape up to advance over Bayern Munich. The fifth round loss was a crushing defeat and manager Arsene Wenger has taken heat for the poor play of the club. Bayern Munich coach Jupp Heynckes has defended Wenger about the poor play and he said the criticism has been unfair.
"Wenger is a great coach. You see the way his teams play," he said to ESPN.com. Arsenal has a lot of tradition and history. They play attractive football. If you take away the game against Blackburn they have been very positive. They're fifth in the league. They will be a very difficult opponent for us.''
Arsenal is trying to find a way to win a title this season, but it will be increasingly harder after the Saturday loss, since the team is far out of the Premier League top spot and now all he can look for is the Champions League. The Saturday match was frustrating for Arsenal, as they had a solid chance in the 25th minute after Abou Diaby was able to knock a header hard into the goal area, but Rovers goalkeeper Jake Kean was able to knock it away.
Last season Bayern Munich made it to the Champions League final and the team will offer a difficult challenge for Arsenal, as they are 15 points ahead in the Bundesliga.
"You have to take into consideration that Arsenal are competing with teams like Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City,'' Heynckes said. The way I see it, over the years they have been selling their best players whereas the other teams get in these world stars. If you have to compete with that I don't think it is fair to blame Arsene Wenger."
Arsenal will get a boost if defender Laurent Koscielny can return and the team will benefit from the return of Carl Jenkinson, who was out for one game after a suspension.
Lukas Podolski is leading Arsenal with three goals, while Olivier Giroud is tops in assists with four. Arsenal has had a tough time the past two months, falling to Blackburn as well as Chelsea in January. The club will need a solid victory on Tuesday before the return match in March, with a number of Premier League games in between.
Arsenal may have an advantage as Bayern Munich has lost six of the past eight Champions League final 16 away games, including a loss at Arsenal a few years ago in 2005. The club will have to keep a focus on striker Mario Mandzukic, who has headed in more goals than any other player in the top five European Leagues in 2012-13, according to the Guardian.
Thomas Vermaelen has been one of Arsenal's top performers this season, playing in every minute of Arsenal's Champions League season. Bayern has been solid in goal in away games, giving up just one away goal this season. Luckily for Arsenal, the club has scored in 16 of the past 17 matches and in the last six Champions League games against German teams, the club has split down the line, going 2-2-2.
The last time Arsenal won against Bayern was in 2005 and came off of a Thierry Henry goal in the 1-0 victory. Bayern has been a high-scoring team this season, scoring three or more goals 14 times.
The television coverage for the game will be on Fox Soccer Channel (USA English), Fox Deportes (USA Spanish), ITV (UK), Sportsnet Regional (Canada), Sky Go (Germany) and for streaming it will be on Fox Soccer 2 Go from the main Fox website.
Projected lineups:
--Arsenal (4-2-3-1): Wojciech Szczsny; Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Per Mertesacker, Bacary Sagna; Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere; Lukas Podolski, Santi Cazorla, Theo Walcott; Olivier Giroud
--Bayern Munich (4-2-3-1): Manuel Neuer; David Alaba, Dante, Daniel van Buyten, Philipp Lahm; Javi Martinez, Bastian Schweinsteiger; Franck Ribery, Toni Kroos, Arjen Robben; Mario Mandki
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