Wenger believes Ozil was a bargain at £40 million

The Gunners kept their hopes alive by easily dispatching Croats Dinamo Zagreb thanks to two goals from Alexis Sanchez and another by Mesut Ozil on Tuesday, while Bayern Munich lent them a helping hand by thrashing rivals Olympiakos 4-0 in Group F. The match is now essentially the second leg of a knockout tie and the Gunners must overturn their defeat at the Emirates, which means victory by two goals or by a margin of one if they score three goals.

Asked if he was confident, Wenger replied: “I believe we can do it”.

Wenger believes that Sánchez’s toughness is the result of his upbringing in Tocopilla, a mining town in northern Chile where he would play street football with friends for hours and hours.

Further, after failing to land a single senior outfield player in the summer, the squad is crying out for new faces as they challenge for the title-and moreover, their vocal supporters won’t take kindly to successive failure, either.

Talking about Sanchez, Wenger added: “His resistance is remarkable. What is also remarkable is that he goes to South America [on global duty], he comes back Thursday night and on Saturday he can play without a problem, even if he’s jet-lagged”, Wenger said. Wenger has compared the in-form Chilean to a lion because of his explosive and committed style of play despite getting frequently knocked down by the opposition players on the pitch.

However, as good as they’ve been, it has largely been down to the stunning form of Jamie Vardy and Riyad Mahrez. If he doesn’t get there, after he’s dead. They go when they go. “He would have been a flawless tennis player”.

“I have an opportunity to be back in the team and I will try to prove every game that I can be in the team. They are a higher quality team than Olympiacos and my opinion is that they will go through”.

Flamini is certainly the most natural replacement for Coquelin: Arteta recycles the ball at the base of midfield rather than going after it aggressively, as the two Frenchman do, and is more a player in Cazorla’s mould. “We spent £40 million on Ozil and I still consider it a bargain because we got a top quality player”.