Arsenal v Barcelona on Tuesday night will be seen as a series of head-to-head battles by some.

Our defence against their unstoppable strikeforce. Sergio Busquets against Mesut Özil. Alexis Sánchez against Dani Alves.

But Francis Coquelin is relishing a battle with one of the finest central midfielders to ever play the game in Andres Iniesta.

“Playing Iniesta is going to be tough, but I’m ready for it and I’m looking forward to it,” the French enforcer told Arsenal Player.

“Any player wants to play players at this level and I’m ready for it if I’m involved. Everyone wants to play these types of games. We are really looking forward to it.”

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Coquelin has already faced some of the best midfielders in the world, but playing against Andres Iniesta on Tuesday may just top the list. (CHRISTOF STACHE/AFP/Getty Images)

Unbeaten in 32 games in all competitions, facing the Spanish giants probably couldn’t come at a worse time. With fixtures piling up the toll on the squad will be tough, but at least there’s no pressure on us to deliver on Tuesday.

Having already beaten Bayern Munich this season, Arsenal will believe they can perform on the big stage once again, especially at home.

“Barcelona are probably the best team in the world at the moment,” Coquelin admitted. “Everyone needs to be at 100 percent and I don’t think we need to play with fear. We need to be ready and believe we can do something.

“If we have that belief, we can do great things. We showed that in the past against Bayern Munich a few months ago. Not many people said we could win this game and we showed we can compete with great teams as well.”

That game against Pep Guardiola’s Bayern was absolutely must win and, if we want to progress, the home leg against Barcelona is no different.

So, like I said, no pressure.