Monaco v Arsenal team news: Welbeck, Giroud, Alexis Sanchez and Ozil all start but Ramsey left on the bench as Wenger's men try to overturn first leg deficit

 

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Gunning for Goals: Arsenal have it all to do in Monaco
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Standard Sport17 March 2015

Danny Welbeck and Olivier Giroud both start for Arsenal as Arsene Wenger's side look to overturn their 3-1 deficit from the first leg.

January signing Gabriel returns to the bench following time on the sidelines with injury and replaces Chuba Akpom from the squad that defeated West Ham 3-0 at the weekend, but it's not all positive news for the Gunners.

Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky did not travelled with the squad, with the 34-year-old ruled out through illness, while Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain misses out following the hamstring injury suffered during the FA Cup quarter-final win over Manchester United.

TEAMS IN FULL:

AS Monaco starting XI: Subasic, Fabinho, Wallace, Abdennour, Kurzawa, Toulalan, Moutinho, Kondogbia, Dirar, Martial, Berbatov

Substitutes: Stekelenburg, Carvalho, Elderson, Touré, Matheus, Silva, Carrasco

Arsenal Starting XI: Ospina, Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal, Coquelin, Cazorla, Welbeck, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud

Substitutes: Szczesny, Gibbs, Gabriel, Chambers, Ramsey, Flamini, Walcott

"The statistics are against us," Wenger told reporters. "The result in the first leg is against us. We are conscious of that. No matter how big the percentage is we have to give absolutely everything to make the stats lie. That’s our desire and belief that we can do it.”

Meanwhile, Per Mertesacker believes the Gunners' recent run of results has given them the belief required to turn their 3-1 first leg deficit around.

“I think we are coming out of a great week with two important wins,” said the Germany World Cup winner. “We have a good level of confidence. There has always been a good mood in the squad and during the season we responded well at times but we have to face the truth, we have to show a different face tomorrow but you need to embrace the challenge.

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