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Arteta - Home form will decide our fate

Mikel Arteta says Arsenal’s Champions League home form will determine whether they progress to the knockout stage.

The Gunners lost in front of Borussia Dortmund’s famous ’Yellow Wall’ and can expect a similarly hostile atmosphere when they travel to Anderlecht and Galatasaray.

However, their next European game is at Emirates Stadium against the Turkish side and Arteta believes home advantage can be decisive.

"We were trying to make them play a different game but I think we encouraged them to play the way they wanted"

Mikel Arteta

“It has to be and we have to start taking the points,” the Arsenal captain told Arsenal Player. “Anderlecht and Galatasaray got a draw but we need to recover from this.

“We know this is one of the toughest places to come in Europe and we’ve seen Real Madrid get battered here as well. Most of the teams that come here struggle to play against Dortmund, but we had a different game in mind before [Tuesday] night.

“We were trying to make them play a different game but I think we encouraged them to play the way they wanted. Right from the start they broke against us five or six times when we gave the ball away and it’s not good enough. When that situation comes they are a really good team and they put us in trouble.

“[We needed to improve on] our accuracy when we were taking the ball. When we were trying to play we kept giving the ball away straight away. We allowed them to break, which is their biggest strength. That was a problem.

“Afterwards we defended well for some situations and then it was disappointing to give the ball away with a throw-in for us on the other side of the pitch. It was three against one and they managed to score. If you do that in the Champions League that’s what’s going to happen.”

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