Arsenal vs Bayern Munich: does Watford victory point the way?

Arsenal maintained their challenge at the top of the Premier League with a convincing 3-0 win over Watford on Saturday evening, but they are likely to face a tougher task when they meet Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday.

After defeats in their first two matches in Europe, Wenger's team cannot afford another setback at the Emirates. Defeat would see them all but eliminated the group stage for the first time in 15 years.

The stakes are high against Bayern, but the Gunners will have taken comfort from the performance at the weekend. Arsenal have now scored 11 goals in their last three league matches and have not conceded in their last two.

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Yet Bayern are also in spectacular form and have nine wins from nine in the Bundesliga this season and have scored 29 goals in the process.

Manager Wenger seemed satisfied after the Watford match and said his team were ready to "focus and give everything on Tuesday".

"The confidence level is there, we know exactly what is needed, a 0-0 is not even a good result. To score goals, we have to attack," he added.

But the Gunners will need a "performance and result of epic proportions", warns The Times, which notes that Arsenal's predicament is "entirely self-inflicted".

But could the performance against Watford be the blueprint for a famous win? "On the face of things, this ultimately comfortable victory against the newly promoted Watford would seem fairly light preparation for a match against Pep Guardiola's triple Bundesliga champions," says Jonathan Liew of the Daily Telegraph. "But in beating Watford, Arsenal showed many of the same qualities they will require to beat Bayern tomorrow night: poise, potency, physicality and above all patience."

However, Bayern are a different kettle of fish from Watford, notes Alan Smith in The Guardian.

"Bayern Munich will not tire like Watford, on their last legs after an hour of impressive but futile hassling and harrying, and the Bundesliga champions will, you sense, be far more clinical if the Arsenal defence's current tendency to allow the opposition an all-too-frequent clear path to goal continues."

Smith also hints that Wenger is prepared to forego a European run in order to maximise his side's chances in the title race. "It is increasingly possible to ponder if Wenger is treating the Champions League with the same seriousness as the Premier League," he says. Noting that Wenger picked his "strongest available" team for the Watford match and has hinted at changes ahead of the Champions League fixture.