Monaco vs Arsenal preview: Five things we can expect to see from tonight's Champions League last-16 second leg

Arsenal need to overturn a 3-1 deficit if they are to have any future in this season's Champions League

Monaco vs Arsenal - five things we can expect (Getty Images)

ARSENAL HAVE A KNACK OF SCORING EARLY UNDER PRESSURE

When Arsenal trailed Bayern Munich 3-1 in the 2012-13 Champions League heading into the second leg, few gave them any chance of emerging triumphant at the Allianz Arena.

Yet Olivier Giroud’s goal after just three minutes gave them hope, and while they were eliminated on away goals, they still managed to demonstrate that they can mix it at the top when at their best. The year before, a 4-0 demolition at the hands of AC Milan in the first leg was followed by three first-half goals for the Gunners in the second-leg, but again, they fell just short.

The same can be said about the clash with Barcelona in 2010 when they took the aggregate lead at the Nou Camp, only to succumb to the genius of Lionel Messi and his four-goal haul to blast them out of Europe, but the simple fact is an early goal will put Monaco under pressure. If Arsenal can find the back of the net inside the first 20 minutes, Monaco will begin to feel the nerves, and that could be the Gunners’ ticket to the last-eight of the competition.

OLIVIER GIROUD WILL GET CHANCES TO SCORE

The Arsenal striker is in good form of late with six goals in his last seven appearances, but one of his blanks came in the first leg against Monaco. Giroud was horrendous in front of goal that evening, missing a number of chances before being hauled off early, but Arsene Wenger will have a genuine belief that Giroud will tuck away at least one of his chances if his Premier League form is anything to go by.

If Giroud is to shed a building reputation that he tends to misfire in the biggest games, he needs to put in a performance to remember tonight, otherwise he may well be consigned to the Arsenal striker scrapheap that has claimed so many since the days of Thieryr Henry and Dennis Bergkamp.

PER MERTESACKER WILL BE KEY TO ARSENAL’S DEFENSIVE PERFORMANCE

Wenger’s possible defensive dilemma has already been solved for his with Gabriel Paulista still sidelined through injury, meaning that Per Mertesacker should partner Laurent Koscielny at centre-back. Mertesacker endured a torrid time against Monaco in the first leg as Anthony Martial and Nabil Dirar exposing his lack of pace – Yannick Ferreira-Carrasco continued the trend when he came off the bench – but he has coped well in the three games he has started since.

Mertesacker will be crucial to Arsenal's chances

The World Cup winner needs to realise that with Monaco’s pace out wide, he needs to hold back from rushing into tackles where the ball can be knocked past him, which in effect takes him out of the game (see Dimitar Berbatov’s goal as a prime example). If he keeps his cool, marshals the back-four like he is supposed to, Arsenal stand a much better chance of maintaining a clean sheet that will be a must if they are to go on in the Champions League.

DIMITAR BERBATOV MUST BE STARVED OF THE BALL

Berbatov may not have the work ethic, the pace or the dogged determination to tear a defence apart, but he still oozes class to warrant a special mention. He needed just one chance to rifle the ball beyond David Ospina in the first leg, and demonstrated exactly why Monaco deserved to be in the last-16 of the Champions League.

Berbatov scored the second goal in the first leg

It will be down to Koscielny and Mertesacker to keep Berbatov out of the game, while Francis Coquelin can aid that effort if he performs like he did against Manchester United in the FA Cup. With such a talented array of midfielders ahead of him, Coquelin has no need to push forward regularly, and should instead focus on protecting Arsenal’s biggest area of concern – the defence. If they’re to score three goals, they’re not going to come from Coquelin, and his talents are needed much deeper if Berbatov is to be kept quiet.

ÖZIL, CAZORLA AND SANCHEZ NEED TO BE ALLOWED TO RUN AT THE BACK-FOUR

£42.5m, £16m and £35m. That’s how much the star-studded trio of Mesut Özil, Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sanchez cost Arsenal to sign, yet it was the £12m signing Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who proved to be Arsenal’s biggest threat in the first leg. Why? Because he took direct aim at the Monaco defence and forced them into making mistakes.

Ozil will need to justify his £42.5m outlay

If Özil, Cazorla and Sanchez are going to give Monaco something to think about, they need to take a leaf out of the injured English midfielder’s book and run directly at the opposition. Otherwise, Arsenal’s lavish spending over the past two seasons is going to look pretty wasteful.