Arsenal's men on a mission

Sol Campbell and Aleksandr Hleb have their own personal motivation for wanting Arsenal FC to overcome FC Barcelona in the UEFA Champions League final at the Stade de France.

Testing times
The English international centre-back and his Belarussian team-mate have endured testing seasons, albeit for different reasons. Campbell has struggled for form and fitness and, after being substituted at half-time of the club's 3-2 home defeat by West Ham United FC on 1 February, did not play again until mid-April due to ankle and toe injuries before breaking his nose on his comeback at Portsmouth FC. Hleb, meanwhile, missed two months last autumn having sustained a knee injury on international duty with Belarus and at first toiled to meet the demands of Premiership football following a summer move from VfB Stuttgart.

Acclimatisation period
"I initially found it really difficult to adapt to English football," Hleb said. "I thought I might have made a mistake and I wasn't sure if the move was right for me." Since returning to action in December, however, the 25-year-old midfielder has successfully adapted to Highbury life and knows exactly where the credit for his improvement should lie. "The support I have had from everyone at this club, particularly the manager and the team - players like Thierry Henry, Cesc Fabregas and José Antonio Reyes - has been fantastic and now everything is going really well and I'm very happy. I feel at home here now."

Hard times
Campbell is equally frank about his recent travails: "This has been the most difficult year of my career, playing wise and health wise. I couldn't get a run of games going since Christmas. You're always going to get injuries but it has been very hard for me." Having belatedly returned for the second leg of the UEFA Champions League semi-final at Villarreal CF and helped the Londoners to a tenth successive clean sheet in the competition, the 31-year-old kept his place for the last three matches of the Premiership season as Arsenal overtook his old team Tottenham Hotspur FC to qualify for next season's UEFA Champions League via fourth place. He admits his comeback was a cathartic experience: "People talk about killing two birds with one stone but the past four games, I feel like I've killed about a thousand birds."

Ignore the hype
With their problems seemingly behind them, both men are eagerly anticipating Wednesday's final. Campbell believes the UEFA Champions League showpiece is the most high-pressured fixture in club football, explaining: "There's a lot of hype around the game but we have to forget that and concentrate on playing our own game. It's a massive game and reaching finals like this is what any player wants to achieve. Barcelona will keep the ball and look for angles, and we'll have to get tight on Ronaldinho, you can't give him too much time."

Final resolve
For his part, Hleb has flourished on the right of midfield where his perceptive passing frequently unlocks defences. The Belarussian has been used as part of the 4-5-1 formation that Arsène Wenger has favoured throughout the knockout rounds, but stresses that the manner of performance is less crucial than the final outcome. "The most important thing is to get that trophy," he said. "It doesn't matter what you do to win, or how you win, but that you win." For Hleb and Campbell, that would be the perfect way to mark their respective revivals.