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The Gunners travel to France having won all NINE of their last nine away games - and German centre-half Mertesacker is confident of sealing another one tonight.

He said: "We have an exceptional team - that's the main thing.

"We built up confidence from last season, especially the last 10 games when we didn't lose anything.

"You could feel it from the first day that there is something special in this team, apart from the first game [against Aston Villa], no one dropped and the performance went well after that.

"We have shown so far that we are ready to keep our confidence and keep the run going. The most important thing is to keep that mental level high and to be prepared for because it will be hard.

"They will put pressure on us so we need to be aware of that, particularly in the first 15-20 minutes."

The chances of Arsenal starting with their campaign with three points look to have been dramatically boosted by the news Mesut Ozil and Olivier Giroud are available.

Ozil, signed to much fanfare on transfer deadline day, travelled to Marseille after struggling with tight muscles following his superb debut in Saturday's 3-1 win at Sunderland.

Giroud, who suffered a knee injury at the Stadium of Light, has also been passed fit, but Arsenal's squad still looks threadbare.

A lengthy injury list including Santi Cazorla, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Lukas Podolski means teenagers Isaac Hayden and Chuba Akpom have had to travel as part of Arsenal's 18-man party.