Arsenal set to maintain high standard

Avoiding defeat at home to R. Standard de Liège will guarantee Arsenal FC's passage to the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League for the tenth successive season. The visitors, meanwhile, need victory to put pressure on Olympiacos FC who lie in second place in Group H.

• In their last outing the London side enjoyed a convincing victory against AZ Alkmaar to cement their position as group leaders. Cesc Fàbregas scored twice in a 4-1 win with Samir Nasri and Abou Diaby also on target.

• The same night Standard's first win in the competition, at home to Olympiacos, lifted them off the bottom and put them on four points. László Bölöni's side were indebted to Dieudonné Mbokani's strike after 31 minutes and Milan Jovanović's late header.

Previous meetings
• The game at Stade Maurice Dufrasne on 16 September proved a topsy-turvy affair with the Belgian hosts taking a quickfire 2-0 lead through Eliaquim Mangala and a Jovanović spot-kick. Arsenal began their comeback through Nicklas Bendtner but had to wait until 13 minutes from time for Thomas Vermaelen's equaliser. Eduardo then wrapped up a comeback victory four minutes later.

• Arsenal's only previous home game with these opponents ended in a 3-0 win. However, the real story of that 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup second round tie came in the second leg in which the English team triumphed 7-0, Standard's worst result in UEFA club competition, with six different players finding the net.

Match background
• Standard lost their first four competitive games in England but on their last visit, a 2008/09 UEFA Cup first round tie at Everton, managed a 2-2 draw.

• Arsenal have faced only one other side from Belgium in UEFA club competition, KFC Winterslag, in the 1981/82 UEFA Cup second round. They won the home leg 2-1 but went out on away goals after a 2-2 aggregate draw.

Team ties
• Coaches Arsène Wenger and Bölöni have both had spells in charge of AS Monaco FC and AS Nancy-Lorraine.

• In September Jovanović met Bacary Sagna and William Gallas in the FIFA World Cup qualifier between Serbia and France in Belgrade. Gaël Clichy was on the bench for the 1-1 draw.

• Vermaelen will face Belgian international colleagues Axel Witsel, Steven Defour and Igor De Camargo.

• Vermaelen and Defour were opponents of Fàbregas when Spain beat Belgium 5-0 in a World Cup qualifier in September. All three – and Witsel – were also involved on 15 October 2008 when Spain won the group game in Brussels 2-1.

• Vermaelen and Defour played in a 2-0 friendly defeat by the Czech Republic on 7 February 2007. Tomáš Rosický was on the winning side.

• Vermaelen and Defour were in the Belgium side that beat Serbia 3-2 in a UEFA EURO 2008™ qualifier in Brussels on 22 August 2007, Jovanović coming on as a second-half substitute for the visitors.

• Standard defender Ricardo Rocha was an unused substitute as Tottenham Hotspur FC lost 3-1 to Arsenal in the Premier League on 15 September 2007.