Arsenal have ‘deep desire’ for Champions League win

Arsenal 1 Sheffield United 1

The Londoners were denied the ideal preparation for their trip to Germany as Sheffield United scored a last-minute penalty to level the scores at 1-1 in their fifth round FA Cup tie at Highbury on Saturday.

Arsenal had been forced to play for almost an hour with only ten men after Dennis Bergkamp was sent off for shoving the Blades’ Danny Cullip after 35 minutes.

But Wenger, who rested key players including Thierry Henry and Patrick Vieira, was adamant his squad were in good shape before the first leg of their Champions League game.

“I feel we are well prepared, we have a good spirit and we have good experience but Bayern have as well,” said Wenger.

“I think it is so important to us to do well in the Champions League that it does not matter that we are not at the top of the league - there is no difference in motivation.

“We will try to finish as well as we can in the championship but the Champions League is there and for a few years now people have expected a lot from us in that competition. I cannot give a guarantee that we will deliver but the deep desire is there.”

Arsenal will be without influential centre-back Sol Campbell tomorrow as the England defender is yet to recover from a twisted ankle he picked up against Manchester United on February 1.

Wenger may also have to do without defender Ashley Cole, who is struggling with flu, and Brazilian midfielder Edu, who has a hamstring injury.

Wenger acknowledged it would be tough to get past Bayern, who thrashed Borussia Dortmund 5-0 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

“Bayern have good experience in the Champions League and they have won it four times in their history so they are a difficult team to play against,” said Wenger.

“I feel we could have won the Champions League last year as it was fairly open by the semi-final stage. But this year no matter what happens, four big clubs will go out and four big clubs will go through in the quarter-finals.”

Wenger justified resting some of his big name players against Sheffield United which Arsenal were minutes from winning thanks to Robert Pires’ 78th-minute tap-in before Andy Gray’s last-gasp spot-kick.

“The game was quite physical and we could have lost one or two key players (to injuries) if I had played them. The young team we played today did not take their foot off the pedal like other players might have knowing they had another game coming up. I feel that it was a team that was strong enough to win the game.”

Wenger blamed his side’s inability to get past their lower league opposition on the dismissal of Bergkamp, who was sent off for his part in a 35th-minute melee in which teammate Jose Antonio Reyes seemed the bigger culprit.

“We lacked penetration up front when Dennis came off and van Persie was on his own up front and was not totally fit,” said Wenger.