Arsenal kick-off their European adventure with a a tricky encounter against Turkish side Besiktas with the first leg being played at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul. The return leg will be played at the Emirates Stadium a week later. Arsenal have made the group stage of the Champions League for the last 18-years and this is a trend that Arsene Wenger will not want to stop.
Arsenal have a few injury worries ahead for the first leg of this hugely important game with defenders Kieran Gibbs and Laurent Koscielny both likely to be missing which adds pressure to the Arsenal defence and this may force Wenger to bring back Arsenal's German contigent quicker than expected.
Wenger said "We are desperate to do it because we want to play in the Champions League and we know how big these games are. We had to give a lot [against Crystal Palace], hopefully we will recover and be ready for Tuesday night.We are desperate to go through, no matter what it costs we want to go through. We have always a difficult draw, we had Fenerbahce last year, this time we have Besiktas. It's difficult. We will assess Koscielny on Monday; if he's fit and capable to play, we play him. It was our plan to bring the Germans back in contention for Everton. But in case of emergency I will take Mertesacker." This just shows the intent of Arsenal to make the lucrative land of the Champions League group stage.
Besiktas will be no pushovers and will try to stun the favourites and with the likes of Demba Ba and Jermaine Jones they have enough firepower to do well and in Slaven Bilic, they have a good coach who has been through a lot as a manager. Billic will make sure his side are compact and resolute in defence.