The Champions League starts once again and our opening fixture sees a very tricky game away to Bundesliga champions, Borussia Dortmund. Drawn in pot four, (a pot containing the likes SC Otelul) due to their lack of participation in the tournament in recent years, it's fair to say we got the rough end of the draw - One that Wenger believes is one of the toughest he has ever encountered.Arsenal have qualified for the last 14 Champions League tournaments, getting beyond the group stages in the last 11. The boss believes that, in his experience, this is one of the strongest he has seen yet.
“Especially because Pot Four gave us Dortmund,” he said. “That’s why it is very difficult - Marseille, Dortmund and Olympiacos. Sometimes you discover the real difficulty when you are in it and when we play the games. It’s a good opportunity for us to get positive vibes, and we need a bit of that. Every team, no matter how good they are, needs confidence, and I believe my team needs that at the moment.
Dortmund are no pushovers and tomorrow night will really be an early test to the quality of this current side. Our last visit to the Westfallenstadion ended in defeat back in 2002 as now -Gunner Tomas Rosicky hit a brace in a display that would have encouraged Wenger to splash out on him just four years later.
Rosicky will sit this one out, along with injured quintet Vermaelen, Squillaci, Ramsey, Wilshere and Diaby, though suspended trio Gervinho, Alex Song and Emmanuel Frimpong return.
Much of the result of tomorrow night's clash will be dependant on the Arsenal defence's ability to cope with playmaker Mario Gotze - a man labelled by German legend Franz Beckenbauer as "the German Messi" - Though new signing Per Mertesacker will know his countryman's game inside out having faced him twice for former club Werder Bremen last season.
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