Arsenal take on Ligue 1 side AS Monaco in the first leg round of 16 of the Champions League at the Emirates on Wednesday.
After failing to get past the last 16 of the Champions League for the last four years, the Gunners will be hoping to finally break that jinx now that they are faced with a considerable easy opponent.
While they were eliminated from the last 16 of the Champions League after losing to Barcelona and AC Milan in 2010/11 and 2011/12 respectively, they were also not able to reach the quarter-finals in the next two succeeding seasons, due to them drawing against German giants Bayern Munich on both occasions.
However, this time, the Gunners' chances of getting through to the final eight are pretty high due to them drawing against Arsene Wenger's former side Monaco.
Although the Ligue 1 side will certainly not be an easy opponent, Arsenal, who finished as the runners up of Group D behind Borussia Dortmund, will be considering themselves lucky as they could have been drawn against a much tougher opponent.
Still Wenger insists that his side will not be taking it easy against Monaco on Wednesday.
"I've been manager of Arsenal for 18 years and I'm only focused on qualifying for the quarter-finals," Wenger told UEFA's official website.
"Monaco are a team who got 11 points in the group stage – they scored four goals and conceded one – which means they defend very well. That's certainly what they will try to do as they are also very good on the break, quick in transition."
"We have been in the Champions League for 17 consecutive years – easy is a word that you have to ban in the Champions League. Every time we have been in there, it was through hard-earned wins. It is always a one-goal difference – you go out for one goal, you stay in for one goal and that means you have to work very hard."
Meanwhile, Monaco will also be looking to progress to the last eight of the Champions League despite them being the slight underdogs against Arsenal.
Although the Ligue 1 side, who sold some of their key players including James Rodriguez and Ramadel Falcao (loaned) last summer, have not exactly been impressive this season, they have managed to do decently so far.
They are currently fourth in the Ligue 1 and in the quarter-finals of the Coupe de France.
Despite admitting that no one expects Monaco to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League, manager Leonardo Jardim insists that his side will be giving their best against Arsenal.
"Monaco have never been favourites and we still qualified top of our group. It's the same here: nobody expects us to win but that shouldn't stop us reaching the quarter-finals," Jardim told UEFA's official website.
The 40-year-old Portuguese says that their main strategy against the Gunners will be not to allow the opponent to "unbalance" them.
"Our strategy is to be solid and not allow Arsenal's key attacking players to unbalance us," he added. "We have a few players missing from the side that got us here, but it is the boys on the pitch that matter. The most important thing is that we stay faithful to our football philosophy and our defensive quality – we can also attack well and get an important goal here."
Expected line-ups
Arsenal: Ospina; Chambers, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Coquelin, Cazorla; Welbeck, Özil, Sánchez; Giroud.
Monaco: Subašić; Fabinho, Carvalho, Kurzawa, Raggi; Dirar, João Moutinho, Kondogbia, Bernardo Silva; Berbatov, Ferreira-Carrasco.
Where to Watch Live
The game is scheduled for a 8:45pm GMT (1:15am IST, 2:45pm ET) start, with live coverage on Ten Action and Ten HD in India. The match can also be watched via live streaming online on Ten Sports Live.
Catch the action in the UK live on Sky Sports 5 and Sky Sports 5 HD, with an option to live stream the match online on Sky GO. US viewers can watch the game live on Fox Sports 1 or online on Fox Soccer 2Go. Audience in Canada can see the tie via live stream on Sportsnet World.
Viewers in the Middle East and North Africa can watch the match via live streaming online onbeIN Sports Connect, while South Africa and Sub Saharan Africa viewers can do the same on SuperSport online.
