Besiktas boss Slaven Bilic is bullish about his side’s chances against Arsenal but admits the Gunners are clear favourite to progress from the Champions League qualifier double-header.

The former West Ham and Everton player took over the reigns at the Istanbul outfit just over a year ago having developed a reputation for blood and thunder exuberance during six years as coach of the Croatian national team.

Indulging in typically fiery rhetoric the 45-year-old insisted that his players weren’t turning up for a couple of selfies with the Gunners main men, dismissing even the prospect of a snap with Mikel Arteta’s gloriously stiff barnet.

“We are not here to take selfies with Arsenal on the pitch, we are here to battle to the end,” Bilic told press ahead of tomorrow’s game (translation by Turkish Football ).

“Don’t expect our players to take selfies with Alexis Sanchez and Arteta, we believe we can qualify and will do everything we can to make it happen.

“We know who we are playing very well, Arsenal may be favourites however, this doesn’t mean we are going to lay down and roll over.

“Look at the Champions League logo behind me, they say a picture tells a thousand words well look at that logo, that is where we want to be, that is our plan, that is our dream and we will do everything we can to get there.”

We’ll hear what Arsene has to say in response to that in the coming couple of hours. Presumably, he’ll not be advocating selfies either, which could come as a shock to Wojciech Szczesny…