Arsenal legend Martin Keown has urged his former side to proceed with caution after being handed a very favourable Champions League draw.
The Gunners were drawn against Bayer Leverkusen in the last 16 of the Champions League, but the bigger story is what side of the draw they landed on.
It was always going to be Atalanta or Leverkusen in the round of 16 and had Arsenal drawn the former, they would have been on the same side as Manchester City, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Liverpool and reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain.
Instead, they will face Bodo/Glimt or Sporting CP should they beat Leverkusen, and if they get through that quarter-final, it will be Barcelona, Newcastle United, Atletico Madrid or Tottenham Hotspur in the last four.
Arsenal supporters are obviously getting ahead of themselves and you can’t blame them.
But the club’s former defender Keown thinks that is dangerous, especially after Leverkusen beat Manchester City in this season’s league phase and Bodo/Glimt defeated Inter Milan in the play-offs.
“Arsenal are becoming quite formidable now in Europe, one of the big heavyweights,” Keown said after the draw. “They were out of the competition for six years or so, three years back in now.
“Quarter-final, semi-final (the last two seasons), hopefully this year you can go that one step further. But you can’t look beyond Bayer Leverkusen in the next round, you see Inter Milan go out in the manner that they did.
“Arsenal will be confident, they’re in really good form right now, but they won’t be complacent.”
On the Leverkusen tie, Keown said: “I think it will be a tough game, we’ve seen them do very well against other English teams in the Champions League, some good wins away from home.
“They won’t be taken lightly. Arsenal will really go after them, and I think this year (having) the second leg at home, I think that’s really strong from Arsenal’s point of view.
“Not looking beyond Bayer Leverkusen, but to play them second, the second game at home, I think it’s a strong advantage.”
Keown believes Arsenal can go all the way to the final, but urged how important it is to “take one step at a time”.
“Of course you want to go to the final, nobody’s frightened of that. But you’ve got to take one step at a time, be beyond professional,” he said.
“You can dream, and you can say that the draw looks kind, but when you see some of the teams in there, Bodo/Glimt, who knocked out Inter Milan, former winners of the competition, you’ve got Barcelona, it’s difficult wherever you look.
“So just concentrate on what you need to do, that’s the next game (against) Bayer Leverkusen, and we go from there.”
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