AC Milan vs Arsenal. UEFA Europa League Round of 16.
Giuseppe MeazzaAttendance72,821.
Thursday 8 March 2018 20:12, UK
Arsenal will look to keep their season alive on Thursday when they visit AC Milan in the first leg of their last-16 Europa League clash (kick-off 6pm GMT).
Arsene Wenger's men travel to Italy on the back of four straight defeats in all competitions.
Having lost to Tottenham, Man City and, most recently, Brighton in the league, their chances of Champions League qualification via the Premier League have all but ended. It seems that winning Europa League is now their only hope of gaining qualification for Europe's elite competition.
The Gunners will meet a rejuvenated AC Milan side, who have improved immensely since club legend Gennaro Gattuso has taken the reins. The Rossoneri are in the midst of their best unbeaten run in nine years, having won six of their last seven Serie A matches.
However, while Wenger insists winning the Europa League is an opportunity Arsenal must grab, Laurent Koscielny admits he and his team-mates are in a "negative spiral".
The Frenchman called for unity after Sunday's 2-1 loss at Brighton and, speaking on the eve of the Milan game, conceded the mentality of the players needs addressing.
"When you have bad results its always bad for the team," he said.
"We are disappointed with how we played. We need to be together. That's the most important. It doesn't matter what's going on outside.
"We are in a negative spiral and it's difficult to get out of this. We need to have positive voices in our heads because the brain dictates the body and the legs.
"We have to be positive to have a good result and step by step we will come back stronger."
Wenger, meanwhile, has called on his players to step up and do just that as they look to stop their season petering out with two months of the campaign remaining.
"It makes me think about last year," Wenger replied, when asked if having a trophy to play for was similar to last season's run to a third FA Cup success in four years.
"Last year we won the FA Cup, we made 75 points and missed out on the Champions League by one point.
"75 points is still a very good score what we will not reach this season. This is an opportunity we have to take, yes, of course.
"It increases the pressure on it even more on this competition. At the moment, it is certainly difficult when you go through a patch like that but I believe as well it is a good opportunity to show you have the quality and the strengths.
"You can only show that when it is difficult. It is a good opportunity to show we can deal with that and as well, on the longer term, it will make the team even stronger."
Hector Bellerin is missing from the Arsenal squad, with the right-back absent with a knee injury, with fellow defender Nacho Monreal also left at home as he failed to recover from a back problem in time to be involved.
Alexandre Lacazette (knee) is out while club-record signing Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is cup-tied. Danny Welbeck is the only recognised senior striker available to manager Wenger.
This is the first meeting between Milan and Arsenal since the 2011-12 Champions League campaign, when they met in the Last 16; Milan won 4-3 on aggregate, winning 4-0 at the San Siro in the first leg before losing 3-0 at the Emirates in the second leg.
Arsenal haven't gone beyond the Last 16 of a European competition since 2009-10, when they were eliminated by Barcelona in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The Gunners have lost their last three European trips to Italy (excluding qualifiers), failing to score in defeats to Roma (0-1), Milan (0-4) and Napoli (0-2).
Milan have lost just one of their last 18 home UEFA Cup/Europa League matches (W14 D3), losing 1-0 to Roda JC in February 2002 (excluding qualifiers).
Gattuso played the full 90 minutes the last time Arsenal won against Milan at the San Siro in March 2008, with the Gunners winning 2-0 thanks to late goals from Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor.
Milan's Fabio Borini is averaging a goal or assist every 73 minutes in the Europa League this season (two goals, three assists in 366 minutes of action) - however, the Italian has failed to score or assist in any of his seven previous career appearances against Arsenal and has never been on the winning side against them (D2 L5).
Arsenal (28) and Milan (27) are the two teams still left in the competition to have used the most players in this season's Europa League.
The Gunners have scored 18 goals in the Europa League this season, with only Real Sociedad (19) and Zenit St Petersburg (20) scoring more. However, eight of the goals scored by Arsenal were netted by players no longer at the club - Olivier Giroud (3), Theo Walcott (3), Alexis Sanchez (1) and Mathieu Debuchy (1).
I have to be honest, I didn't expect Arsenal to win at the weekend. I've never seen such pain in Arsene Wenger's face and what does he do with this squad? Laurent Koscielny was an absolute embarrassment, Shkodran Mustafi has been an embarrassment too since he joined.
AC Milan are bog standard and don't score many goals, sat seventh in Serie A with just 37 goals scored and 30 conceded, so they're far from the football machine of days gone by.
At least Arsenal have goals in them and this is the competition they're all in for, so I actually think they are value in them as outsiders to win on Thursday night.
Charlie predicts: 1-2 and Welbeck to score first (50/1 with Sky Bet)
AC Milan are Sky Bet's 23/20 favourites to establish a first-leg lead, with Arsenal priced at 5/2 and the draw a 12/5 chance. The Gunners are, however, marginal favourites to qualify for the quarter-finals and shorter odds in the outright betting at 5/1 to their hosts' price of 14/1. Nikola Kalinic and Patrick Cutrone share favouritism at 4/1 apiece in the first goalscorer betting.
