• Champions League

Heynckes: Arsenal in unfair fight for Premier League

Bayern Munich manager Jupp Heynckes has offered his backing to Arsenal counterpart Arsene Wenger as the two prepare to meet in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Heynckes, who is leaving Bayern at the end of the season to make way for Pep Guardiola, said it was not Wenger's fault that Arsenal had fallen behind bigger-spending competitors.

He pointed to the difference in expenditure between Arsenal and other clubs and said: "You have to take into consideration Arsenal are competing with Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City.

"Over the years, they have been selling their best players and these other teams get in top world stars, so I don't think it is fair to blame Arsene Wenger for that.

"Arsenal have a lot of tradition and great history, and they stand for attractive football. Take away the game against Blackburn - they are fifth in the league and they have played a lot of positive football in the Champions League.

"Arsenal are a very good team, especially going into attack. We have to stand very tight in defence and then work our way forward. I do think that, if we play to our very top level, we can win here."

Bayern's Bastian Schweinsteiger, meanwhile, described Arsenal as one of "top ten teams in Europe".

"Of course the days of Tony Adams, Thierry Henry, have gone and maybe they are pining for those days, but still they have [Jack] Wilshere - he was out for a long time but he is very difficult to play against," he said.

"They are not the typical English team, they have [Santi] Cazorla in there and they are very technical, but I don't know why they have not won trophies because they have the quality to win. Arsenal are one of the top ten teams in Europe."

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