Mikel Arteta insists his Arsenal side will not be weighed down by the club’s previous failures in the Champions League and they can write their own history.
The Gunners are into the last-16 of the Champions League for the first time in seven years and will face Porto in the first leg on Wednesday.
Arsenal have not made it to the quarter-finals since 2010 and were knocked out at the last-16 stage seven times in a row between 2011 to 2017.
Arteta was at the club for six of those years but, asked if he has spoken to the current squad about those struggles, he said: “No, I have not had any conversation related to that.
“They [the current squad] know that we have not been in the competition for seven years, obviously as some of them were here and they know the story.
“And they know that what happened in the past is irrelevant, it is the challenge and ambition that we have now to go through.
“Someone called [Lionel] Messi was another obstacle as well [when I played] and Bayern Munich that we faced three times.
“This competition is what it is. Individual quality is extremely important. It comes down to details and you need your players at your best when the occasion arises. Tomorrow for sure we’ll need that.
“We have earned the right to be here. It’s been seven years since we’ve been at the top table for these kind off matches and 14 years since we were able to go to the next stage.
“That’s the challenge. We know what is ahead of us but we are very excited to face it and to go for it with full believe, that’s for sure.”
