Arsene Wenger has outlined his
tactical approach for Tuesday's
highly-anticipated Champions
League tie at Barcelona, insisting
Arsenal are not set up to defend
in numbers at the Nou Camp.
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Arsenal carry a 2-1 advantage
into the second leg on the
last-16 clash after their come-
from-behind win at the Emirates
last month. Much of the pre-
match discussion has centred on
whether Arsenal will seek to
simply protect their lead or try
to extend it.
Last season, eventual champions
Inter beat Barcelona 3-1 at home
then parked the proverbial bus
at the Nou Camp and progressed
to the final by restricting the
then holders to a 1-0 victory.
Arsenal will certainly need to be
more solid than they were in the
quarter-finals last year when
they were defeated 4-1 in Spain
to lose 6-3 on aggregate.
Wenger, though, hinted Arsenal
would not follow Inter's blueprint
because his team is incapable of
reproducing the Jose-Mourinho-
masterminded defensive
masterclass due to their wealth
of attacking talent. Wenger is
mindful of the fact Arsenal do not
have the extra goal buffer that
Inter had and that a 1-0 loss
would see the Gunners eliminated
on away goals. The manager said
he would take a goalless draw
but is not expecting the match to
play out that way, so he will send
out his men to attack.
"It is a little bit of an illusion to go
to Barcelona and think they will
not score at all," Wenger said. "So
you have to think we want to
score at least a goal. Is it realistic
to go there to try to play a 0-0
from the first minute on? First of
all it would be considerably
against our nature and even
tactically I don't think it is
defendable. We have not a team
with 11 defenders who are happy
to defend."
Wenger believes a clean sheet is
most likely unattainable on
Tuesday night but he insisted he
has total faith in his defence,
pointing to their recent record in
the Premier League as a sign of
Arsenal's increased tightness at
the back.
"We have to fight against the
preconceived ideas because the
only way of thinking is that
Arsenal cannot defend," said
Wenger. "I will just remind you
that in the last 11 games we
have seven clean sheets in the
Premier League, we have
conceded less goals than Man
United, who have a very good
defence. We can defend when we
have to but we prefer to attack
that is for sure."

He is trying to be optimistic, at least that is expected from him as a coach who is leading a team.
But does this really reflect reality?