Achtung!

Tonight is the first in a run of fixtures that will determine whether we can shake the hoodoo of being the team that always threatens to win but can never quite cross the line in first place.

We are in a fantastic position in the FA Cup, and although there is a great deal left to do, on paper at least we are the favourites to take home the title.

We have to win, its as simple as that. When will we have the opportunity to play against two teams who are at least a league below us in both the semi and final again? We have to back ourselves, because as we know we've had some great nights in major competitions, against Bayern, Barca and AC Milan beating all these sides when no one else could. Although Wigan will be fired up, full of self-belief after their storming victory against City, we have to come out of the blocks and play as if our lives depended on it.

As for tonight, few will be hopeful of a miraculous comeback, especially away from home. However as we're sure some of you will have noticed, Arsenal have an impressive away record this season, winning 8 and drawing 2 of our last 14 away fixtures and there is evidently something about playing without the restrictive influence of a petulent home crowd that enables our players to express themselves more openly.

This is not true in every case, take last weekend's abysmal display at Stoke, yet as a rule we tend to play more forcefully away from home. This is a reversal of what you would expect, yet the simple truth is the Emirates is full of the ghosts of season's past, disappointing seasons fraught with crucial and costly errors and has been home to some seriously fickle fans especially over the past two campaigns.

At home, should we fail to break teams down early we tend to lose our grip over the game for periods. At the start of the season with a fully fit squad including Ramsey and Walcott this was never too much of a problem as we always believed the goals would come, however since January the side has looked more despondent as the games drag on.

Away from home, we are the travellling show. Not many sides are blessed to offer such a dizzying array of big names, virtually every player has a starting place in their national side. They have something to prove, especially in the face of opposition from the stands.

Similarly away from home we are expected to retain less possession, which suits our ability to break swiftly on the counterattack as we saw with Giroud's brilliant second goal against Everton and have seen throughout the season.

We have beaten Bayern at the Allianz already, they know that we are capable of an upset which limits our ability to spring a surprise this time around. Had the score remained 1-0 at the Emirates this woudn't have mattered as one goal can come from anywhere, but you have to believe that a team as experienced as Bayern with a manager whose been here before will completely kill the game if we get a first.

We have a small chance, one that is arguably smaller than last season's as they know what to expect. The first goal is crucial, score first and the rulebook goes out of the window, players are only human and nerves are likely to set in, but if Bayern score first Wenger has to concede defeat and look to rest a couple of our key players ahead of a massive clash with Spurs on Sunday.

The beauty of football is that nothing is for certain, who knows perhaps we are about to witness one of the greatest comebacks in Champions League history, we're the kind of team who can lose to Stoke on the weekend and then beat the European champions within the same week. All we can say is Achtung Bayern!

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