Arsène Wenger readies Arsenal for ‘win at all costs’ clash with Besiktas

Laurent Koscielny celebrates his goal against Crystal Palace but he is a doubt for Tuesday's Champions League tie. Photograph: Bogdan Maran/AP

Arsenal’s players were still glowing in the aftermath of Aaron Ramsey’s stoppage-time winner, a prod from a few yards out that maintains this team’s momentum, as they departed the Emirates on Saturday, although Arsène Wenger had already moved on. His squad touch down in Istanbul on Monday for what has become their annual awkward Champions League qualifier. “We are desperate to go through, no matter what it costs,” said the manager. Besiktas will feel much the same way.
A year ago they breezed beyond Fenerbahce, of Istanbul, at this stage. This time around, back in the same city, they face Slaven Bilic’s side, a team supplemented by the £6m arrival from Chelsea of Demba Ba, a player Arsenal coveted last August. The Senegalese has already scored a hat-trick for his new club, to knock out Feyenoord in the previous qualifying round. In that context, Wenger will be pained to be travelling light in defence, with Kieran Gibbs absent due to a hamstring injury and doubts surrounding Laurent Koscielny’s involvement.
The France centre-half flicked in the hosts’ equaliser, drifting away from Crystal Palace’s defence to meet Alexis Sánchez’s set-piece delivery, but limped away from a victory that owed more to perseverance than prowess after a recurrence of a long-standing achilles problem. Per Mertesacker was not scheduled to return until next weekend – he, along with the squad’s other World Cup winners, Mesut Özil and Lukas Podolski, was granted an extended break – but is now expected to travel to provide cover if Koscielny cannot feature. The teenage defender Héctor Bellerín, too, should make the trip.