Psyched-up Gunners to go for Real jugular

Arsene Wenger has promised that Arsenal, psyched up by sessions with a shrink, will go for Real Madrid's jugular on Wednesday as they seek to book their place in the Champions League quarter-finals.

Thierry Henry's strike gave the Gunners a famous 1-0 victory in the first leg of their last 16 clash in the Bernabeu a fortnight ago.

But Wenger, who has enlisted the help of a psychologist as part of his efforts to overcome Real's Galacticos, insisted he would not be sending out his team to sit on that lead.

"We cannot have the attitude that we can just defend," the Arsenal manager said on Tuesday.

"Of course, we must defend well but the second part of the job is to give them some problems and try to score goals."

"We expect Real Madrid to play well but on our side we want to go forward. We did maybe a bit more than half the job in the first game."

Madrid stood off Arsenal in the first leg and it is thought that they will favour a more aggressive approach which Wenger's side have struggled to combat in a faltering Premiership campaign.

"The good thing about Madrid is that you can't get too focused on one player," Wenger added. "If you start looking at individuals it will confuse us."

"You want to play well as a team but you can't focus too much on who will make a difference, because any one of them could."

"In the same for us. The defensive performance of my team as a unit will be vital, not just the performance of a few individuals."

Arsenal's Swedish midfielder Freddie Ljungberg revealed that Wenger brought in a sports psychologist to assist the squad before the clash at the Bernabeu.

"We've always had great belief in the team, but yes, the boss brought someone in to talk to us briefly," Ljungberg said.

"I don't know if he speaks with the players individually but I have not spoken to him since he was first introduced to us."

"In Madrid we helped each other so much, we tackled, we ran for each other and maybe we haven't done so much of that in the past."

Ljungberg, 28, is also mindful of the responsibility he has as a senior player in guiding the likes of Cesc Fabregas, Philippe Senderos and Emmanuel Eboue.

Arsenal will start with 16-year-old Theo Walcott on the substitutes' bench.

If used, Walcott will become the second youngest player to play a Champions League tie after Celestine Babayaro, who set the record for Anderlecht in 1994.

"I definitely feel more responsible. When you have a lot of young players in your squad and you've been around a long time you feel a responsibility to help them out," said Ljungberg.

"You want to help them along and now I see that as I part of my job."

Wenger meanwhile admitted he was wary of the threat posed by Brazilian hero Ronaldo, who has come under fire from Madrid fans in recent weeks and has looked a shadow of the striker who dominated the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea.

"I think he will be very important," Wenger said. "The price to pay if you're a big player is that when you don't make the difference you will be criticised."

"The reason people are on his back at the moment is that he used to make a difference. If he never scored goals before then nobody would care about him."

"But he has always made the difference in big games and maybe that's why people are now after him. That's the price you pay."