For the third campaign in a row, we’ll be heading to Eindhoven for a game against the Dutch giants, and our former Invincible feels that familiarity will help us and that our home form means no team left in the competition would fancy taking us on in north London.
But having watched PSV closely in his role as a TV pundit, Martin admits they deserve to be treated with caution, especially after they knocked out Juventus over two legs, with two players in particular catching his eye.
“With being respectful to PSV we know it’ll be a tough game,” Martin said at UEFA’s headquarters in Nyom, Switzerland. “After watching them in the play-off round against Juventus I thought they were quite outstanding. It was interesting that Ivan Persic is getting on in years but he played really well in the second leg, and Noah Lang was also outstanding, so it's a difficult opponent.
“We have experience of them as we played them last year but we have to be confident going into these games because our record in the Champions League is six wins from eight and four of those at home so we make for quite the formidable opponent. No one really wants to play against Arsenal that's for sure.”
Arsenal to face PSV in Champions League last-16
The new format means that we know that we’ll be heading to Madrid for a clash against city rivals Real or Atletico in the quarter-finals of the competition if we’re successful against PSV, and Martin has enjoyed watching the revamped format this season.
We finished third in the 36-team table to avoid the play-off round, and Martin praised us for navigating our way through our eight matches with just one defeat, especially given some of the giants in the European game failed to secure one of the converted top-eight spots. But now knockout football has returned for ourselves, he’s relishing the added intensity of the matches, starting with our Dutch test next month.
Evaluating the new format, he added: “I enjoy where you play eight teams randomly and it's quite difficult to work your way through that, it’s a lot of work for your analysis team.
“I think it's been difficult for teams - it's interesting seeing Real Madrid and Manchester City having to play the extra game in the play-off round so it's not been as comfortable for them, and interesting the way English teams have been at the top of the table.
“Now we go to the next stage where there becomes more jeopardy and this is when we’ll really see who's best.”
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