Arsenal to rotate heavily in Zagreb with Chelsea in mind?

Dinamo, the Croatian champions and current league leaders, saw off Molde and Skenderbeu to book their place in the group stage.

Arsenal will surely play a strong side for this tricky away match with the Gunners knowing that the upcoming double-header with Bayern Munich could be make-or-break if they do not get some early points on the board.

Arsenal star Per Mertesacker was left shaken after his vehicle skidded on water as he drove through torrential rain on Monday.

The Gunners have made it out of the group stages on the last 12 occasions – but getting much further than that has become a real issue for them, in part because coming second in their group has often handed them a more hard last-16 tie.

“We lost our first game a year ago in Dortmund and straight away it put us under pressure”, Wenger said.

“It will be a big test for us, but if we concentrate on our strengths we know we can perform well”.

“It is important we go to Zagreb highly focused and conscious at what is at stake there”.

“You can be quickly out of the Champions League and we want to start well and we know we have a battle first to qualify with Bayern Munich [in the group]”.

“It is important to start well because the hunger of the team is shown well by how you do in every single competition”.

The German defender has been out of action since August 16 with a chest infection that has seen him miss Arsenal’s last three Premier League games.

“I think he has an eye for the goal”, he said of the player who opened the scoring in Saturday’s 2-0 win over Stoke City.