Tonight:
4°c
Three years after Arsenal first visited AZ Alkmaar officially recognised as the second best team in Europe, the Gunners return tonight aiming to take another step towards proving they are ready to go one better and secure their first Champions League triumph.
Arsene Wenger brought his side to this picturesque outpost in northern Holland as the star attraction in a friendly match to mark the opening of the DSB-Stadium just 79 days after gallantly failing short in the biggest club match of all against Barcelona in Paris.
The visitors won that friendly 3-0 as a collective cleansing process began after the fateful events in the Stade de France but this evening only two of that 2006 line-up make the trip - Emmanuel Eboue and Cesc Fabregas - as the Gunners look to maintain their 100 per cent record in Group H.
However, while the faces may have changed, the one yawning gap in the Emirates Stadium trophy room remains.
Much has been made of Arsenal's silverware drought having entered its fifth season, and as the squad overhaul has reached an almost breathtaking pace, Wenger has admitted the transformation has not always been on his own terms.
"I had not planned to make so many changes to the squad," he said.
"At the time, in 2006, we did not plan to lose Alexander Hleb and Mathieu Flamini. Thierry Henry, I knew, would go to have a final move and he did not play here.
"But I believe this team has a big future now. We have improved the belief and the results.
"However, we know we have not won anything yet, it is all in front of us and that is what we want to show this season.
"It is a nice stadium in Alkmaar, a bit like the Emirates, only smaller. In that pre-season it was just after the Champions League final. We had lost against Barcelona but we had a good game here.
"At the time, I was impressed with our team and Alkmaar's. Louis van Gaal had just taken over the club and I thought he would do something with the team because they showed quality."
Wenger's keen eye for spotting potential was on the mark once more - Van Gaal departed Holland exultantly this summer for Bayern Munich having delivered only the second league title in AZ's 42-year history.
But under new coach Ronald Koeman, Alkmaar's ten Dutch Eredivisie matches this season have been split evenly in wins and losses, and five defeats from their last eight outings reveals a team struggling for form.
While they have lost just once in 34 European home ties, virtually all those results came outside of the Champions League and they are yet to register a victory in this season's tournament after a draw with Standard Liege and a defeat to Olympiakos.
On paper this represents a sizeable mismatch and these days Dutch teams don't carry the fearsome reputation of previous incarnations - PSV Eindhoven won the competition in 1988 while the great Ajax side of the mid-1990's came within a penalty shoot-out of retaining the trophy in 1996.
Spain's La Liga, Italy's Serie A and of course our very own all-conquering Premier League have taken up the mantle and Wenger said: "It is down to money. The difference between Holland today and 15 years ago is that the players leave early and the top foreign players don't come to Holland any more. They go somewhere else because of the difference in financial potential.
"You look at the Ajax or PSV teams that won the Champions League and they had Brazilian stars like Ronaldo and Romario.
"Today it is much more difficult for these players to come to Holland because in Brazil you have 200 scouts every week who look at a young players coming out. It is difficult to see a change but it is a cycle and only linked to financial power."
Some would note with irony an Arsenal manager voicing his concerns over trying to compete against clubs with greater financial clout but the echoes of Wenger's prudent policy resonates a little louder here, given the turmoil in the Alkmaar boardroom.
Chairman Dirk Scheringa has used his position as CEO of Dutch bank DSB to invest heavily in the club, providing the money to buy the new stadium and finance transfers and contracts for players.
But the bank has this week been declared bankrupt, creating the possibility of sponsorship shortfalls and quick loan repayments and a malaise now hangs over AZ.
Wenger is used to watching other clubs sail through stormy waters from the prudent decks of the good ship Arsenal, and while he has every sympathy with Alkmaar he doesn't think their travails will affect them on the pitch tonight.
"In general, for the club as a whole it is a big blow," said Wenger. "But in a big game like this, it will not influence the players - a Champions League game is in your head above anything else in your life."
Although that focus on the next challenge remains, Wenger did allow himself a moment to reflect on his own managerial career as he approaches his 60th birthday on Thursday.
And so what would he say now to that young Arsene who started his managerial career nearly 30 years ago at French club Nancy-Lorraine?
"The only thing I would say to that 30-year-old guy is that I believe now I worked hard and that I was very lucky," he added. "You need to go into clubs where they trust you and let you work and on that front, I was very lucky."
Maybe so, but perhaps he is due a bit more luck in Europe too.
Player to watch
Mounir El Hamdaoui
(AZ Alkmaar)
Last season's top scorer in the Dutch Eredivisie, Hamdaoui made a blistering start to this campaign with five goals in four matches but his strike in last weekend's 3-2 defeat against
FC Twente was his first since late August. The
25-year-old has several links with English football; as a child he played with Arsenal's Robin van Persie in Rotterdam and in 2005 he became a Frank Arnesen signing at Tottenham, where he failed to make a first-team appearance and was instead loaned out to Derby County. The Moroccan international, who was dropped by manager Ronald Koeman earlier this month after being stuck in a traffic jam that caused him to report late for duty, has one goal in two Champions League matches and is one of the more technically gifted players in Alkmaar's side.
Team news
Theo Walcott has been ruled out for four weeks after picking up a knee injury in the win over Birmingham. Andrey Arshavin is set to return to the starting line-up following his substitute appearance last weekend along with left-back Gael Clichy (ankle). Tomas Rosicky (knee) misses out while Manuel Almunia is vying for a start in goal after overcoming a stomach virus and may replace stand-in Vito Mannone. Nicklas Bendtner will undergo a late fitness test on a groin problem but Denilson (back), Eduardo (thigh) and Johan Djourou (knee) are all unavailable. Samir Nasri and Lukasz Fabianski make their comebacks in tonight's reserve fixture at Wolves. For AZ, Ronald Koeman has a fully fit squad to choose from.
