Arsenal fans across the world are now hotly anticipating the club’s historic meeting with Real Madrid in the Champions League.
Arsenal last faced Real Madrid whilst Arsene Wenger was still in charge back in 2006, a two-legged knockout tie that was won 1-0 on aggregate.
Almost 20 years ago, Arsenal faced the likes of Ronaldo and Zinedine Zidane with a defence that included Mathieu Flamini at left-back for both legs.
Of course, Arsenal will be without Gabriel Magalhaes owing to the hamstring injury he suffered against Fulham recently, but they can perhaps take confidence from past examples.
And whilst Rio Ferdinand thinks Real Madrid are favourites, Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya seems a bit more optimistic about his side’s chances.
David Raya shares what Mikel Arteta has done before facing Real Madrid
Speaking to beIN Sports recently, seemingly before Arsenal faced Everton, Raya was asked about what Mikel Arteta had been telling his players about coming up against Real Madrid.
In response, Raya surprisingly admitted that Arteta hadn’t spoken about the game yet – a statement that might baffle some Arsenal fans.
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From the outside looking in, it would appear that Arsenal’s whole season has now been geared towards the two legs, but Raya claimed that it hadn’t been spoken about even less than a week before the game.
Raya said: “If I’m honest, we haven’t spoken about Madrid yet because obviously we have Everton in between but we know how the Bernabeu is and what everybody says that a game in the second leg in the Champions League at the Bernabeu is very long.
“But if we do what we know we have to do, I think we have a good chance to get through to the semi-finals.
“But lets just focus on the first game first at the Emirates and we’ll see what happens and what happens in the Bernabeu.
“So just looking ahead to the second leg is not good for us.”
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal selection headache ahead of Real Madrid
As mentioned, Gabriel won’t be available for either leg against Madrid meaning that Arteta will have a tough call to make.
Jakub Kiwior impressed Arsenal fans against Everton but Arteta might also be tempted to use Ben White as a centre-back.
Jurrien Timber thinks Gabriel will be a ‘big miss’, the player he sees as Arsenal’s defensive leader.
However, it is a boost that Arsenal’s leader in attack should be ready to start – Bukayo Saka.
Mikel Merino will be Arsenal’s striker against Madrid by all estimations, and he’ll undoubtedly benefit from having Saka’s creativity on the right.
