No Gala fear for Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger Champions League

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Arsene Wenger says he intends to field a strong side against Galatasaray as Arsenal look to round off their Champions League group-stage campaign in style on Tuesday.

The Gunners are already through to the last 16 of the tournament but will be desperate to record a victory that will give them a chance of overhauling leaders Borussia Dortmund – and hopefully result in them being handed a kinder draw in the knockout stages.

Despite some spirited performances, Arsenal have not made it past the last 16 of Europe’s biggest club tournament since the 2009-10 campaign, often due to them being paired early on with one of the favourites.

The players will go into the match in Turkey feeling they have a point to prove following a fairly woeful performance on Saturday which saw them go down 3-2 at Stoke in the Premier League.

Wenger’s men have often shown themselves to be very resilient and are the favourites to get the result in Istanbul at 2.26, with Galatasaray 2.84 and the draw priced at 3.28.

Turkey is known as one of the toughest countries to visit in Europe, but the veteran French coach is not planning on holding back against Hamza Hamzaoglu’s men.

“We’ll go with a strong team of course, we want to win the game,” Wenger told the club’s official website.

“Since the start of this season we have played seven games in the Champions League, including the qualifiers, and we have won four. I would like to win five.

“Galatasaray is a massive club in Turkey. They certainly have the biggest support in Turkey.”

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