Arsenal v Dortmund background

Despite their lapse last time out, Arsenal FC need only a point to reach the next phase for the 15th consecutive season as they face a Borussia Dortmund side who booked their place in the last 16 with victory on matchday four.

• The teams are in the same UEFA Champions League section for the third time in four seasons. Dortmund were 2-0 winners in Germany on matchday one, Ciro Immobile and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scoring either side of half-time.   

Previous meetings
• Last season Dortmund won 2-1 in London. Henrikh Mkhitaryan was on target for the visitors with Olivier Giroud equalising his early strike. Arsenal then triumphed 1-0 in Germany with an Aaron Ramsey goal.

• The lineups at the Arsenal Stadium on 22 October 2013 were:
Arsenal:Szczęsny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Rosický (Gnabry 89), Arteta, Ramsey (Bendtner 86), Wilshere (Santi Cazorla 58), Özil, Giroud.
Dortmund: Weidenfeller, Grosskreutz, Subotić, Hummels, Schmelzer, S Bender, Nuri Şahin, Błaszczykowski (Aubameyang 66), Mkhitaryan (J Hofmann 66), Reus (Papastathopoulos 87), Lewandowski.

• The teams finished level on 12 points with SSC Napoli – Dortmund in first place, Arsenal second.

• In 2011/12, Arsenal won 2-1 at home after a 1-1 draw in Germany, Shinji Kagawa scoring Dortmund's consolation.

Match background

Arsenal
• The November 2011 win over BVB was Arsenal's sixth in succession against German visitors; since then they have lost four in a row at home, most recently the 2-0 reverse against FC Bayern München in last season's round of 16 first leg which led to a 3-1 aggregate loss. It was the second successive year Bayern had eliminated them at that stage.

• Arsenal's home record against German clubs is W9 D1 L5; overall it is W14 D6 L11.

• The Gunners followed the defeat at BVB with a 4-1 home victory over Galatasaray AŞ, Danny Welbeck scoring a hat-trick, and then won 2-1 at RSC Anderlecht.

• In the return against the Belgian champions, Arsenal took a 3-0 lead before the hour only to be pegged back to 3-3. That put them on seven points, five ahead of third-placed Anderlecht and well placed to progress from the group for the 15th time in 17 seasons. 

Dortmund
• Dortmund have won both away games in Group D, against Anderlecht (3-0) and Galatasaray (4-0), and conceded only one goal so far, beating Galatasaray 4-1 at home on matchday four. 

• With maximum points so far, they hold a five-point advantage over Arsenal and have qualified for the knockout rounds for the third successive season. 

• Their last six UEFA Champions League away fixtures have produced five wins and a single defeat, 3-0 at Real Madrid CF in last season's quarter-finals which led to a 3-2 aggregate reverse. 

• Dortmund, winners in 1996/97 and runners-up two years ago, are in their tenth group stage campaign.

Coach and player links
• Tomáš Rosický played for Dortmund between 2000 and 2006, scoring 19 goals in 149 Bundesliga games.

• Mesut Özil faced BVB four times for Real Madrid in the 2012/13 UEFA Champions League, his 89th-minute free-kick earning a 2-2 group stage draw at the Santiago Bernabéu.

• Özil faced Dortmund eight times while with FC Schalke 04 and SV Werder Bremen (2006–10), scoring in Bremen's 1-1 draw in 2009.

• Lukas Podolski scored twice against Dortmund in 14 encounters during his eight years (2004–12) with 1. FC Köln and Bayern and helped Bayern to a 2-1 win over Dortmund in the 2007/08 German Cup final.

• Per Mertesacker scored two goals in 16 appearances against BVB while with Hannover 96 and SV Werder Bremen (2003–11).

• Arsenal's Mertesacker, Özil, Podolski and Dortmund's Mats Hummels, Marcel Schmelzer, Kevin Grosskreutz, Sebastian Kehl, İlkay Gündoğan, Matthias Ginter, Roman Weidenfeller, Erik Durm and Marco Reus play together for Germany.

• Łukasz Piszczek's Poland got the better of a Germany side featuring Hummels, Durm and Podolski in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying on 11 October, a 2-0 win Germany's first defeat in 19 competitive matches.

• Jakub Błaszczykowski scored in Poland's 2-2 draw against Schmelzer's Germany in a September 2011 friendly in Gdansk. Wojciech Szczęsny was in goal for Poland and Hummels was on the German bench.

• Hummels scored in Germany's 1-0 win over a French side containing Mathieu Debuchy, Laurent Koscielny and Olivier Giroud in this summer's FIFA World Cup quarter-final.

• Sokratis Papastathopoulos scored Greece's equaliser against Joel Campbell's Costa Rica in the World Cup round of 16. Greece lost 5-3 in the penalty shoot-out.

Match facts

Arsenal
• Nacho Monreal is a yellow card away from a suspension.

• Arsène Wenger's side's 23-match unbeaten run at home in the Premier League – since a 3-1 loss to Aston Villa FC on the opening day of last season – ended on Saturday when they went down 2-1 to Manchester United FC, with Kieran Gibbs scoring an own goal. Jack Wilshere and Wojciech Szczęsny both went off injured.

• Olivier Giroud struck a stunning late consolation against United on his return from three months out with a broken leg.

• Arsenal have made their worst ever start in the Premier League era, with just 17 points from 12 games. They have won just four in the league this campaign; they had nine victories at the same stage last term.

• Having squandered a three-goal advantage at home to Anderlecht, Arsenal let slip a lead again on 9 November, conceding twice in the final 15 minutes as they lost 2-1 at Swansea City AFC.

• Alexis Sánchez has scored nine goals in his last nine outings for club and country, including the opener in Chile's 5-0 defeat of Venezuela on 14 November and their subsequent 2-1 loss to Uruguay.

• Welbeck is the five-goal joint top scorer in UEFA EURO 2016 qualifying. He registered twice as England came from behind to triumph 3-1 over Slovenia at Wembley on 15 November.

• Wilshere provided the pass for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain to head the opening goal in England's 3-1 friendly victory against Scotland three days later.

• Yaya Sanogo was on target twice before the break as France Under-21s recovered from two down to beat their England counterparts 3-2 in a Brest friendly on 17 November.

• Koscielny has not featured since returning from international duty in mid-October with an Achilles problem.

Dortmund
• Dortmund have started a UEFA Champions League campaign with four wins for the first time. The last time they opened a group stage with three victories, in 1996/97, they went on to lift the trophy.

• Reus was carried off with ankle ligament damage in Saturday's 2-2 draw at SC Paderborn, and has been ruled out for two months. He had earlier given the visitors a 2-0 lead just before half-time.

• The Schwarzgelben condemned VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach to their first defeat of the season in all competitions on 9 November, winning 1-0 at home.

• Papastathopoulos has not played since suffering a calf injury against Mönchengladbach and Sven Bender missed out on Saturday because of a hip problem.

• Hummels, out with an ankle problem since 1 November, returned to training during the international break.

• Nuri Şahin, yet to make a competitive appearance this season because of a knee injury, and Oliver Kirch (out since 19 August, thigh) were involved in a friendly against the club's U23 side during the international break.

• Błaszczykowski has resumed training. The midfielder has been sidelined with a knee injury since January, and also suffered a thigh strain in September.

• Adrián Ramos scored the only goal as Colombia triumphed 1-0 in Slovenia on 18 November.