Kolo Toure today claimed the pressure is all on Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United ahead of Wednesday's Champions League semi-final.

The Gunners travel to United for the first leg aiming to reach their second final in four seasons by overcoming last year's winners.

And Ivory Coast international Toure believes his team have nothing to lose after being written off on several occasions during the current campaign.

"There is more pressure on them because they are the team to beat," said the 28-year-old. "They are the ones who won it last season but for us we are going there to do the best we can, playing free and passing the ball. We know when we play football against United, they struggle a lot.

"They are a really good team going forward but at the back they have conceded a few goals, like us. I think the team that will win will be the one that defends the best.

"At the start of this season, nobody expected us to be where we are. We have never won it and we now have the chance. We will go for it - we are not scared."

Toure was part of the side that lost to Barcelona in the 2006 final and he believes the current crop compares favourably and could even emulate the young Ajax side that won in 1995.

He said: "It's true that we lost a player like Thierry Henry, which is difficult, but Emmanuel Adebayor is playing really well. We lost a player like Robert Pires but we have Samir Nasri. All those players have been replaced. I think the good thing about this team is that we have a lot of young players who want to show they have the quality.

"I remember that Ajax were a team that nobody was expecting to win but they won and had a really young team as well. I think we can do that."