Carlo Ancelotti has insisted that Bayern Munich's recent dominance over Arsenal in the Champions League will have little bearing on their latest meeting.
The Bundesliga leaders have knocked the Gunners out of Europe's showpiece competition twice in the past five years, while also thrashing them 5-1 at the Allianz Arena in last season's group stage.
Arsenal have not managed to progress beyond this last-16 stage since 2009-10, but Ancelotti is not taking anything for granted ahead of Wednesday's first leg and is wary of the English outfit's counter-attacking quality.
"I don't take this [past record] into consideration," he told reporters. "It will not be a psychological barrier, and if there is a psychological barrier it means they want to move on from this with this game against us.
"I have a lot of respect that Arsenal can play fantastic football when they are comfortable on the pitch. We have to be able to make them uncomfortable on the pitch. We are not playing to avoid [conceding] goals, we are playing to play a good game, to have control of the game.
"It's true that Arsenal are really dangerous in the counter-attack, they have fantastic, fast players, and we take that into consideration. But it's 180 minutes, not only 90 and if we want to move on we have to play well for 180 minutes."
Ancelotti also revealed that Jerome Boateng and Franck Ribery are both unavailable for the match due to a chest and hamstring injury respectively.
Daniel Lewis
