Champions League Group F preview: Gunners all fired up

Arsenal will hope to turn their resurgence in domestic fortunes into some strong Champions League form when they host Marseille on Tuesday.

Despite their indifferent English Premier League form over the first two months of the season, Arsenal sit on top of Group F in the Champions League with two wins and a draw, one point clear of Marseille.

Since their 2-1 loss to Spurs on October 2, Arsene Wenger’s side have won three league games in succession, culminating in their stunning performance in eclipsing Chelsea 5-3 on Saturday.

The last time they met, a last-gasp winner from Aaron Ramsey lifted Arsenal to a 1-0 triumph over Marseille at the Stade Velodrome, but Marseille – ninth in Ligue 1 – head to London in confident mood after defeating Dijon 3-2 on Saturday.

Wenger will be hoping for more good form from Dutch master Robin van Persie, who has already found the back of the net 10 times this season.

“Robin’s form is fantastic,” Arsenal winger Theo Walcott said. “It makes our job much easier when he plays like that.”

“We’re enjoying our football, our run is great now and we’re just going to keep on continuing that. Everyone is buzzing at the moment.”

Group F’s other match sees German champions Borussia Dortmund welcome Greek outfit Olympiacos to the Signal Iduna Park in dire need of a win.

After drawing with Arsenal in their opening match, Dortmund suffered crushing away defeats to Marseille (3-0) and Olympiakos (3-1) to leave them bottom of the group on one point, two behind Olympiakos.

Dortmund are third in the Bundesliga and played out a 1-1 draw with Stuttgart on Saturday, but manager Jurgen Klopp knows his side needs three points.

“We need to play at least as well as we did against Stuttgart,” Klopp said.

“Our chances of qualifying are over if we lose.”

“We have learned our lessons from the first three games and we know what we have to do to make this group more interesting.”