Arsenal are not soft touches anymore but they cannot miss chance to top Champions League group, says Rio Ferdinand

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Rio Ferdinand22 November 2016

Arsenal have a great opportunity to finish top of their Champions League group this year and it’s one they can’t afford to miss.

They have finished runners-up for four successive seasons, been given a tough draw in the last 16 and gone out.

But beat Paris St Germain at Emirates Stadium tomorrow night and top spot is assured. Encouragingly, there does seem to be a lot more resilience about Arsenal this season. It is a trait I first saw away at PSG. They were totally outplayed and yet came away with a point. The 1-1 draw at Manchester United on Saturday was a similar story.

This is not something I have associated with Arsenal for a while. Usually, once they fell behind, especially against the better sides, they’d fold. But this is perhaps a sign of a stronger mentality building at Emirates Stadium.

We are also starting to see that Arsenal do have a strong squad, with good options on the bench. I have said before that Olivier Giroud is a great Plan B and he showed that again with the equaliser at Old Trafford.

But the man who provided the assist was also a substitute in Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain — another quality player.

You do need players who can come on and change a game. At United we had people outside the first XI who could do that — players like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Javier Hernandez. This match is all about being professional. Just because they’re through, don’t treat it as a non-event.

The teams who have qualified for the Champions League knockout round

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There can’t be many bigger incentives than finishing top and potentially getting an easier tie in the next round.

Rio Ferdinand is part of BT Sport’s Uefa Champions League coverage. Watch his blog after the match on btsport.com

BT Sport is the only place to watch all four major football competitions in one place, with exclusively live coverage of the Premier League, Uefa Champions League, Uefa Europa League and Emirates FA Cup.

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