Manuel Akanji has dismissed the suggestion that Arsenal are currently the best team in Europe ahead of tonight’s Champions League showdown against Inter.
Mikel Arteta’s side are sitting pretty at the top of the Premier League and are all but assured of a place in the last 16 of Europe’s premier club competition.
The Gunners boast a flawless Champions League record this term having won six straight games, including dominant victories over Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich.
Despite being held to goalless draws in each of their last two league games, Arsenal still hold a commanding seven-point advantage over Akanji’s former team Manchester City.
The experienced Switzerland international, currently on loan at Inter, was a mainstay of the Pep Guardiola teams who prevented Arsenal from usurping them over the course of two particularly tight title races.
Akanji is set to feature this evening as Inter attempt to put an end to Arsenal’s European winning streak and the 30-year-old insists the north London club still have much to prove before they can be considered the best team on the continent.
He said: ‘They’re among the best in Europe, but not the best. I don’t think they’re stronger than Atletico Madrid or Liverpool. It’ll be a good match.
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‘Have they improved? I don’t watch much football anymore. I have three children at home and I already have a lot of football in my work.
‘They definitely have a lot of good players and they’re consistent, which is important to be competitive.
‘What does it take to beat them? Against the big teams, mistakes can be punished. We have to be effective in attack and clean in possession.’
Inter themselves, meanwhile, remain handily placed to qualify for the last 16 without and avoid a two-legged play-off.
‘We’re facing a strong team, one of the strongest in Europe right now, and not only that, but also in previous years,’ said head coach Christian Chivu.
‘They’ve invested, they’re constantly improving. They have an identity, they have players who can cause problems.
‘They’ve been dominant in the Premier League in recent years, they barely missed a win, this year they’re top of the table and they’re having a great season.
‘We know the difficulties we face in the Champions League, what the competition is like and what English teams are like, but at the same time we’re aware of who we are, what we’ve become in recent years in European competition. We know how to approach these types of matches.’
Chivu took over at San Siro in the summer after Simone Inzaghi departed following Inter’s crushing defeat against PSG in the Champions League final.
‘They have some different players in the team, a different coach as well,’ said Arsenal boss Arteta, whose team lost 1-0 at the same venue at the same stage of the competition last season.
‘I think the task is going to be equally difficult, but I think we had, watching it back, a really strong performance here.
‘The margin that we lost the game by was a penalty – obviously we all saw what happened there, and were very disappointed.
‘We’re going to know tomorrow how they set up. We have a very clear idea of what we have to do to win the game, and what we need to apply to be better than them.’
