Arsenal will play Spanish champions Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League for the second season running after drawing the Catalan giants in the last 16.

Barca knocked an injury-hit Gunners out of last season’s competition at the quarter-final stage on a 6-3 aggregate after a Lionel Messi masterclass condemned them to a 4-1 defeat in Barcelona’s Camp Nou.

The make-up of the draw meant that Arsenal had a one-in-four chance of meeting the 2009 competition winners. And Arsenal supremo Arsene Wenger said last week that “If it’s Barcelona, it’s Barcelona. Barcelona is a super favourite in the competition at the moment but we take what we get.”

 

The Gunners title challenge went a little off the rails after a 1-0 defeat at Manchester United last Monday. Arsenal led the EPL going into the game. But they were never at their best.

Wenger claimed the quality of the Old Trafford pitch led to a scrappy game. He said: “The intensity was high but it was a very bad pitch.

“The technical quality suffered as a result and that is why you saw mistakes from both sides. The pitch is not good enough for football. It is bouncy and slippery.”

The Frenchman gave his customarily grudging praise to the opposition, however, saying: “Overall, you have to give credit to United’s defensive quality.” And he admitted: “We know we can play better offensively. It is a big frustration and disappointment. But I don’t know how big a blow it is to our title chances.”

Arsenal host Stoke City this weekend in the EPL, the sides’ first meeting since February when a tackle by Stoke’s Ryan Shawcross broke Gunners midfielder Aaron Ramsey’s leg.

Wenger’s post-match comments describing Shawcross’s challenge as “not acceptable” inflamed relations between the sides. But he was more conciliatory this week, saying: “What happened in the past, happened in the past. “I don’t think there’s any need to add fuel on it. We just focus on playing as we do and respect our opponents.”

On a lighter note, Wenger has defended his players for wearing the recently in-vogue neckwear the “snood” in matches in the colder weather. Players such as striker Marouane Chamakh have worn a snood in recent games and snood-wearers have been criticised as not being “manly.”

Wenger said they were for injury-prevention, revealing that: “I get advice from my medical team, that’s why we let them wear them.”