Arsene Wenger wants to see his players in a state of ‘lucid rage’ when they take to the pitch against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.

The Gunners are on a hiding to nothing in this game – needing to rewrite history if they want to become the first side to ever overturn a four-goal deficit in the Champions League, they will be hoping simply to avoid another humiliation at the hands of the Germans.

Coming on the back of the defeat at Liverpool, there will be plenty of rage from the supporters who bother to turn up, but the team?

“What you expect is that you go out there with a mixture of lucid rage,” Wenger said, smiling. “When you don’t win, everybody always says the same thing, that you don’t fight enough. Football is not only about fight. It’s also the freedom to go for it, the freedom to play.

“The only advantage of our situation is that we do not have much choice about having any hesitation. We have to go for it, to attack and go forward with determination and flow and try to score goals.[cont below]

“[You want] total commitment, but not a silly one because you have, in our game, always to make intelligent decisions, to take the optimal decision. For that you need a good combination of commitment but as well to keep your vision.”