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Milan show respect to Arsenal
AC Milan's star names claim they are ready to banish memories of last season's Champions League demise as they prepare for another match against a North London underdog in Europe's premier competition.
This time last year, Milan's players and supporters dared to believed a draw against Harry Redknapp's Tottenham would result in a routine passage to the quarter-finals for the seven-time European kings.
As it turned out, Spurs were more than a match for Milan as they knocked them out of the competition in convincing fashion and, after that chastening experience, it's hardly surprising to hear the star names in Massimiliano Allegri's squad offering nothing but platitudes in Arsenal's direction this time around.
While many Italian media pundits have been repeating confident rhetoric predicting success for the Italian league leaders this time around, Milan forward Robinho has served up some sobering words as he believes Arsenal, and one man in particular, have earned the right to be respected.
"When Arsenal are playing their best football, with their short passing game in full flow, they are without doubt one of the best sides in Europe and one of the few I would pay to watch," begins the Brazilian who has come under fire from sections of the San Siro faithful this season.
"You have to admire the way Arsene Wenger wants his team to play and we have to be ready for what they can offer. Wenger asks his players to express themselves and isn't negative in any way. It's not a tactical battle to surprise you because all their opponents have a strong idea of what they will bring to the table, so it is just a question of finding a way to stop them and making the most of your own abilities.
"Arsenal are still very dangerous, even if this has not been their very best season. They have a tempo and a clever mentality that is well suited to playing in the Champions League. Also, their record in this competition confirms they will not be easy for us to overcome.
"Clearly the main threat to us will be Robin van Persie, who is an extraordinary finisher with a very special left foot. Luckily for us, our defenders are very experienced and they should make life difficult for him, but we have seen time and again that Van Persie has the ability to score goals from all types of positions.
"Then you look at some of the other attacking options Arsenal have and you can see that they have the ability to make it very difficult for us in this tie. I believe it will not be settled until we have the second leg in London and that means we need to secure a solid result from this first leg at the San Siro.
"This is a very difficult draw for us, but I'm very confident that we will qualify. We have huge experience in this competition both as a team and a club as a while and our team has the skill and explosiveness to give the Arsenal defence lots of problems."
Milan's Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel claims the clash with Arsenal is a '50-50 battle that could go either way', yet he is quick to dismiss the much-discussed gulf in experience between the two sides as a myth.
"It's not particularly helpful to say the two games against Arsenal is a story of Arsene Wenger's kids against the Milan old guard," states Van Bommel. "Milan is not a retirement home for old players, you know. The technical quality in our side is amazing and believe me, we can play with as much exuberance and freshness as anyone when we are at our best.
"Also, it's wrong to claim Arsenal are a side full of novices who have no experience in the Champions League. Andrei Arshavin, Tomas Rosicky, Robin van Persie and many more of their squad have been playing in this competition for many years now. So while we may have a slightly more mature side, I don't think experience will be the decisive key in this tie.
"We will not under-estimate Arsenal. This time last year, everyone suggested Milan would have it easy against Tottenham because our opponents were only the fourth or fifth best team in the Premier League, but they ended up playing the quarter-final and Milan were forced to explain why we were not in the competition any more. We have to avoid a similar fate this time.
"The key to the tie could be in our ability to unsettle the Arsenal defence. It seems that they lack some rigour at the back at times and in Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho, we have two players who are capable of upsetting a team that switches off for one moment."
Ibrahimovic and Robinho were cast among the villains in chief by the Italian media after last season's Champions League defeat against Spurs, yet the latter of the celebrated attacking duo insists he has nothing to prove as he comes up against Premier League opposition once again.
"I know there are people in England who say I have to play a special game in this tie because my time at Manchester City was a failure, but I disagree with this opinion," says Robinho, who cost City £32.5 million when they signed him from Real Madrid in 2008.
"Some of my early games for City were very successful and I finished the first season as the top goalscorer. Admittedly, I had some problems with injuries after that and Roberto Mancini did not always pick me when he came in as manager, but I reject the suggest that I failed in my time at City.
"Anyway, this is all in my past now and my new dream is to win the Champions League with a club whose tradition in this competition is second only to Real Madrid. Failing in this competition is always a disaster for AC Milan because the expectation is that we can live up to our history and lift the trophy once more."
