Unai Emery is not intimidated by the prospect of coming up against Manchester United and is looking forward to Arsenal taking on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s in-form side.
The two clubs travelled to northern France this week but returned home having experienced contrasting fates in European competition.
Whereas United recorded a stunning 3-1 victory to overcome Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League last-16, Arsenal lost by the same scoreline in a Europa League first-leg at Rennes.
Domestically, both are competing to achieve a top-four Premier League finish and meet at the Emirates on Sunday afternoon, when Solskjaer will hope to at least extend his unbeaten league record at the club.
United currently sit in fourth, one point ahead of fifth-placed Arsenal and two ahead of sixth-placed Chelsea, who have a game in hand to play.
“They are in a very good moment,” Emery said of United. “But we are together in the table and we played against them one month ago in the FA Cup. We lost 1-3 but I remember we did very good things and created chances.
“We know Sunday is a tough match. It’s an amazing match for everybody with very good players and we are going to play at home with our supporters. We need a very big performance from each player and tactically to be like a team.
“But I am also looking forward to playing against a team like Manchester United and how they are this moment.
“Their players have very big confidence after their match on Wednesday. But with our supporters I want to create a big, positive atmosphere to help us and give us the best strong support for the match.
Arsenal were leading and appeared comfortable in Rennes until Sokratis Papastathopoulos’ sending off for a second bookable offence towards the end of the first half.
Emery’s side conceded immediately after Sokratis’ dismissal and were forced to play out the remaining 50 minutes with 10 men against a high-energy Rennes side.
But the Arsenal manager is confident that Thursday’s exertions, on top of a tight fixture schedule, will not affect his players physically on Sunday.
“We are finding for each match first players with different energies and for Sunday it is going to be the same,” he said
“The match today, every player worked a lot. We are going to look for the next match how we can be with every player.
“But I know and am positive for Sunday we can take the first XI with fresh players, with energy, quality and also with the possibility to do a very big performance against Manchester United. To win against them.”