AC’s ANGLOPHOBIA
The Milanese side have been eliminated at the last 16 stage of the Champions League in the three recent seasons in which they have participated in the competition.
Arsenal induced their first bout of British blues with a 2-0 aggregate win in 2008 before Manchester United demolished the rossoneri 7-2 over two legs.
Tottenham Hotspur were the latest Premier League side to claim the scalp of the seven-time winners last season, as Milan continued to reboot after their golden era in Europe under Carlo Ancelotti. Despite sitting atop of Serie A, the quality of the Italian league has too has stagnated whilst England’s top tier has overtaken them; highlighted by Milan - eventual Scudetto winners - limping out against Spurs last year, who finished fifth.
EUROPEAN ESCAPISM
Although the weekend win away at Sunderland was Arsenal’s most important of the campaign, European football has offered welcome respite away from the travails of domestic football.
An August qualifying play-off success against a quicksilver Udinese side came amidst the Gunners’ bleak August. Then, during the group stage phase, three wins and two draws in a testing group including German and French champions was negotiated with leisurely ease.
Finishing fourth supersedes European success for Arsène Wenger with both Spanish clubs on the scene, but he will view any further intermittent nights on the continent as an incentive to stay in the Premier League’s top four.
Arsenal's Robin van Persie (right) celebrates scoring their second goal of the game with team-mates
SAN SIRO SUCCESS
When Arsenal dumped Milan out of the competition four years ago, it was rightly regarded as one of the performances of the season. A scoreless draw at the Emirates placed Ancelotti’s side in a false sense of security, and they were duly stunned when their visitors’ exuberance overwhelmed their ageing limbs.
Dominant in one of European football’s most intense cauldrans, the sole surprise was that it took Arsenal 84 minutes to breach a renowned rearguard featuring Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini. Cesc Fabregas’ opener was followed by Emmanuel Adebayor’s stoppage-time second to seal a first English win away to the Italian giants. Retrospectively, the match is considered as the result that ended Milan’s aura in European football.
Only four of the starting XI for the hosts that evening are in contention of lining up tonight, and four years on the scars are worn all-too-patently.
NEED FOR SPEED
When Gareth Bale was ruled out of a swift return to the Giuseppe Meazza stadium a little under four months after his hat-trick against Internazionale, the consensus was that Tottenham had lost the string to their bow. Incomparably consistent Aaron Lennon may be to the Welshman, but there is little to separate the two wingers’ pace, and Lennon was the architecht of the Lilywhites’ historic win on Italian soil.
Picking the ball up halfway inside his own half, the Leeds-born man tore into Milan territory, beating Mario Yepes before assisting Peter Crouch for a tap in.
It is that blueprint which Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain must consult if Arsenal are to penetrate a regimented side whose dearth of pace makes them vulnerable. His breakthrough into the first-team has coincided with the Gunners winning three of their last four, while his very public withdrawal on his first league start against Manchester United was memorably to his team and Wenger’s personal detriment.
That raw hunger Oxlade-Chamberlain offers identifies him as an obvious outlet away from the ball-retention nervousness that festers throughout knockout games.
A FINAL GOODBYE... AGAIN
Thierry Henry says farewell for a third time in his Arsenal career tonight.
He bid adieu to Highbury in 2006 before declining a long-mooted move to Barcelona because he choked against them in that year’s Champions League final. In his final season it was the long goodbye - cut short by injury in February as he promised so much and delivered so little during an egocentric campaign in the club’s first season at the Emirates Stadium.
He now has a statue and celebrated a winner against a lower league club on the downward slope on his (second) debut with typical immodesty. His love for the North London club runs deep, so imagine how galling it would be for the Frenchman to depart on a sombre note, leaving them in the lurch having accomplished his own personal goals... Oh.
*Probably