If Arsenal are to have any chance of overcoming Barcelona this evening, they will need to press the ball with the same effort and determination the Catalans showed in their meeting last season. As we all know, when it comes to playing free-flowing swash-buckling football, Arsenal are match for almost anybody. The one exception being their Champions League opponents on Wednesday night, whom many currently consider the greatest club-team of all time.

Arsenal aren’t going to be able to win this match just on their football alone. What they do without the ball is going to be just as, if not more, important. If players like Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Lionel Messi, officially the top three players in the world, are given time and space, Arsenal will be heading for an early exit. They want to try and avoid the almost kamikaze-like start they made last year when Barca could very easily have been three or four goals to the good by half-time. As it was it wasn’t until the second half that Barca made the breakthrough, but don’t expect the visitors to be quite so profligate in front of goal this time.

The Spanish champions were simply awesome in that first half at the E******s, but you can be sure that Manchester United or Chelsea wouldn’t have made it anywhere near as easy for them. This is where the roles of Arsenal’s midfield three become so important. They need to win the ball back as quickly as possible, and make life as uncomfortable in possession for Barca’s midfield trio, because they will sure as hell be doing the same to Arsenal.

There was a marked improvement in this aspect of their game against Chelsea, when they hustled and harried Carlo Ancelotti’s side into mistakes for two of their three goals, which shows that, hopefully, they may be learning. The defensive duties of Alex Song, Jack Wilshere and Cesc Fabregas, and how they go about them, are absolutely critical to the outcome of this match.

If Arsenal have possession, they can hurt Barcelona. Although unfortunately their talisman for much of this season, Samir Nasri, will, in all probability, be missing for the first leg, there will be a number of players on the pitch for the home side who can win the tie single-handedly. Robin van Persie’s return to form and fitness couldn’t have been more perfectly timed, just as Marouane Chamakh was beginning to feel the burden of being the main target man. Andrey Arshavin has played his way out of his alarming slump in form and Theo Walcott is in the form of his career.

Alves and Abidal will not be relishing the prospect of coming up against Arshavin and Walcott, and the full-back areas could be a major source of success for the Gunners, as they were in the second half of last season’s first leg.

The missing link between success and failure last season could also really be Jack Wilshere. A playing style reminiscent of those schooled at Barca’s famous La Masia, you only hope the Spaniards haven’t done their homework properly on the 19-year-old. He also shows a tigerishness defensively that could prevent Barcelona from playing their normal game.

A source of hope for Arsenal fans will be the fact Sebastien Squillaci will be sat on the bench. A downturn in form over the last weeks, culminating with a red card against Huddersfield, and then his half-time introduction at Newcastle, have led many to brandish him in the “Cygan, Stepanovs, Senderos” category. While that may be harsh, what is true is that Arsenal have been a more solid unit when Koscielny and Djourou have partnered at centre-back this season. Whether those two will be enough to stop Villa, Messi and co remains to be seen, but if Arsene Wenger can instil a work ethic similar to the one deployed by his counterpart Guardiola for these two games, the seemingly unbeatable Catalonians may just become beatable.