Arsenal out to make amends

With two-thirds of the game gone and holding a 3-0 lead against RSC Anderlecht, Arsenal FC were on course to confirm their place in the UEFA Champions League knockout stage with two matchdays to go.

Then the wheels fell off. Anderlecht hit back – scoring three times in the final half-hour to leave Arsenal with plenty of soul-searching and work still to do in Group D. Rather than meeting Borussia Dortmund on Wednesday with top spot at stake, the focus instead is on the point needed to seal their ticket to the last 16.

Having kicked off their campaign with a 2-0 defeat in Dortmund, Arsenal face another big test as they look to put that Anderlecht disappointment behind them. "Dortmund are a good team, we learned that in the first game," centre-back Per Mertesacker told UEFA.com. "We have to be very focused, and not just for 60 or 70 minutes but for the whole 90. I think we learned a lot from the last match, not only for the Champions League but for the whole season in the domestic league as well."

Captain Mikel Arteta should feature against Dortmund, despite limping off against Anderlecht with a hamstring strain with the score at 3-1. The Spaniard is determined to ensure mistakes are not repeated. "We wasted a very big opportunity to go through to the next round," Arteta told UEFA.com. "At 3-0 up, leading at home, this cannot happen, and we are really upset and angry with ourselves because we threw it away.

"You need to cut out mistakes, because in the Champions League every time you switch off or make that little mistake you pay for it. Every team has the quality nowadays to hurt you. We have real quality in our squad, we have talent, we have good players, we have experience and we want to do well. So hopefully things will change."

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker©AFP/Getty Images

It has been a stop-start season for both Arteta and Arsenal. Injuries have restricted the midfielder's appearances while also limiting manager Arsène Wenger's options elsewhere, with key figures Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud, Mathieu Debuchy, Mesut Özil and Theo Walcott all missing large parts of the campaign.

While the summer additions of Alexis Sánchez and Danny Welbeck have given the Gunners added bite going forward, as Anderlecht highlighted, consistency remains a concern as Arsenal strive to find the right balance between defence and attack. 

"They bring speed, imagination, work ethic, fear in the opposition, which is important as well, and experience," Arteta, 32, said of the newcomers. "We have a lot of opportunities up front to change the way we want to play and to play in different systems. So we need to make sure we make the most of it, without forgetting that defensively we need to improve.

"That is where we've had to struggle a bit this season, to find that balance. Compared with last year, we have much more speed, skills and threat, but we need to find the right balance, because every time we manage to keep a clean sheet, we know we have enormous chances to win the game. The better we get defensively as well, the easier we are going to win the game. So I think that's the main focus at the moment."

Arsenal lost at home to Jürgen Klopp's side in the group stage last term and they trail Dortmund by five points entering this penultimate Group D fixture. Second-place finishes have led to exits at the hands of FC Bayern München in each of the past two seasons, and while pole position appears a distant prospect, victory on Wednesday will at least keep Arsenal in with a chance before their last game at Galatasaray AŞ.

Mertesacker believes Arsenal have a "special relationship" with Dortmund having faced Klopp's team three times in the past four campaigns, and the FIFA World Cup winner is relishing the challenge. "I'll see a lot of World Cup colleagues again, and you always have a smile on your face when you see your world champion colleagues – that's always something special," the 30-year-old said. "It will be a hard fight and it will demand the best from us."