Wenger eyes home advantage - Gunners boss aiming to take maximum points at home

Posted Monday, September 26, 2011 by skysports.com

Wenger eyes home advantage - Gunners boss aiming to take maximum points at home
Wenger: Wants Arsenal to show what a force they can be at the Emirates Stadium

Arsene Wenger believes Arsenal's progression in the UEFA Champions League group stage will all depend on their home form.

The Gunners boss acknowledges that three home wins at the Emirates Stadium are vitally important if they want to make the knockout stages of the competition once again.

Arsenal host Olympiakos on Wednesday night after picking up a hard-fought point in the 1-1 draw at Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund two weeks ago while the Greek side lost their opening Group F game 1-0 at home to Marseille.

Wenger hopes the club can maintain the same kind of form at home which they have shown in previous seasons.

"In the Champions League, you need 11 points to qualify (from the group stage) - that means you have to take nine at home and two or three away," he said.

"We got an interesting point in Dortmund and we know after if we do well at home, then we will qualify."

Result

Meanwhile, Captain Robin van Persie feels the point gained at Signal Iduna Park has given the squad a good platform from which to build upon.

He said: "We achieved a good result in Dortmund, even if their late goal might make that sound a bit strange.

"They are the German champions and their running and fitness was phenomenal. I gather they broke every national record in their statistics for high-speed runs, distance runs, every kind of run last season and the average distance run by their players against us was 12.5 kilometres. That is a lot, it means they were closing us down well and making it hard for us to play.

"You could see we found it difficult to string passes together and it was clear we were playing against a top team.

"Looking at the situation as a whole, they really pushed us to the limit, so it is a good result and a decent start in the Champions League."