Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger denied the Gunners are favourites ahead of the tie against Villareal. The Frenchman believes it will be down to how his side will approach the match and who will be available for the double encounter.

He said:

I don’t know [about their form] and in fairness it’s not really important. In this game I feel there are no real favourites and if I show you what has been said in the newspapers over the last six months you cannot put us as a favourite.

It is a difficult 50:50 draw. We know Villarreal and we have the experience having played them before. It is maybe a good opportunity to play the first game away from home but at that level it is very difficult to be creative in the statement you make.

It will depend on the quality of your performance and the players available as well. Now many of them go away on international duty and I hope we don’t lose players through injuries because many of our players are coming back from them now. So it looks like we are in a good situation.

We have learned that to knock out any Spanish team is very difficult. The return leg at Villarreal [in their 2006 semi-final] was a very tough game for us. We know we have to prepare really well for the first game.

But this is a very difficult competition and you can see again this year there are many big clubs in Europe who are not in the Quarter-Finals. We are one of the five clubs who have for 10 consecutive years qualified for the Champions League. So to go to the end of it is of course our immense desire but you cannot put us as a favourite.