Arsene Wenger revealed that he’s targeting the top of our Champions League group and so he should.
After drawing away to PSG in our first game of the competition, if we can win our home games, we’ve got a good chance of finishing top, which would be brilliant considering the Ligue 1 club are favourites.
On Wednesday, Arsenal face Basel at home and the club from the Swiss League is known for taking points off Premier League opposition.
“It’s our target [to top the group] but the truth is on the pitch,” Wenger said.
“We had a good game on Saturday but let’s show that we can go from good game to good game and put the effort in in every single game. That’s what it is about.
“In recent years we came always out of the group stage. Last year, let’s say it was difficult because we made it difficult for ourselves and we have learned as well that in the group stage it’s not only important to qualify but, if possibly, qualify as top of the group. It gives you many more chances after to go through.”
Hopefully, we can learn from that and win.
The final team we’ll face before hosting PSG is PFC Ludogorets Razgrad. The Bulgarian club have already drawn against Basel themselves so they’re level on points with the rest of the Group A clubs.
The Champions League has been a stumbling block for Arsenal for a number of seasons now. We’ve found it difficult to get out of the final 16 because we tend to finish second in the group stages and therefore get drawn against Bayern Munich or Barcelona, even Monaco beat us, so hopefully if we can finish top, we won’t have this trouble.