Arsenal fans have become well accustomed to Champions League qualifiers over the years. Potential tricky ties have seen Fenerbahçe, FC Twente and Celtic dispatched over recent years and this year another potentially complicated fixture sees Turkish giants Beşiktaş stand in Arsenal’s way to the group stage of the competition.

Arsenal’s manner of sweeping aside this year’s Turkish Champions Fenerbahçe at the same point last year will give confidence to Gunners fans that they will once again see more than the one Champions League game at the Emirates this year. Most will predict a tight affair in Istanbul followed up by a home win to take the Gunners through.

‘Desperate’

For the last four seasons, Arsenal have failed to push on from the last sixteen of the competition and Arsene Wenger’s words before the tie in Istanbul echo that of a man who seems keen on improving that record. The signing of Alexis Sanchez shows intent of signing players with real high level pedigree who can influence matches in the latter stages of high level competition.

The Arsenal manager made no effort to downplay how important this early season qualifier ranked in his priorities.

‘We are desperate to do it because we want to play in the Champions League and we know how big these games are. We are desperate to go through, no matter what it costs we want to go through. We have always a difficult draw, we had Fenerbahçe last year, this time we have Beşiktaş. It’s difficult’.

As Wenger looks to add the finishing touches in the last few weeks of the transfer window, he will feel he has created a squad with a blend of youth and experience that is capable of being a dark horse in this year’s competition.

Fitness

There have been differing reports as to whether Arsenal’s weekend goal-scoring defender Laurent Koscielny will be fit for the tie but with Per Mertesacker being brought into the fold early it seems possible that the Frenchman could miss out.

'We will assess Koscielny on Monday,' Wenger said. 'If he's fit and capable to play, we play him.

Kieran Gibbs is set to miss out with a hamstring injury and will be replaced by deputy left back Nacho Monreal. Mathieu Flamini has been in training after Saturday’s Premier League match and may be asked to sit in the midfield and protect the back four alongside Captain Mikel Arteta.

Opposition

Arsenal will have to watch out for once target and former Chelsea striker Demba Ba who signed this summer for and has already bagged a hat-trick in the Champions League in the previous round against Feyenoord.

Beşiktaş have had a good pre season and in Slaven Bilic, a man all too familiar to the English football fan, have a manager who will have his players very motivated in front of a ferocious crowd. Beşiktaş' supporters may be their biggest weapon and the Arsenal will have to do their best to nullify the crowd in the early periods of the match and then look to impose their quality in the later stages of the game.

Arsene Wenger is likely to bulk up the midfield in order to keep things tight. The aim will be not to lose the match this time round but overall Arsenal should have more than enough quality to come into the second leg with a lead in this tie.

Expected line up

Szczesny, Debuchy, Chambers, Koscielny, Monreal; Arteta, Ramsey; Sanchez, Wilshere, Cazorla; Giroud

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