Thomas Muller claims Bayern Munich will be in “fighting mode” to take out their anger on Arsenal.
Bayern threw away a two-goal half time lead and lost 3-2 against mid-table Heidenheim in the latest setback in a disastrous Bundesliga campaign. The German giants now trail Bayer Leverkusen by 16 points and Thomas Tuchel is leaving at the end of the season with the Champions League their last remaining hope of silverware.
Bayern legend Muller, 34, who made his 700th career appearance for the club on Saturday, says they are fired up to face Arsenal in their quarter final first leg showdown at the Emirates on Tuesday. Muller said: “Everyone involved realises that we're not in the best period in the club's history.
“With my many years of experience, I'm already in fighting mode for Tuesday. We can't change this result anyway. It's no good us picking on each other. But the resentment in me is almost looking forward to Tuesday. We'll give it our all on Tuesday."
Bayern have been in a state of complete disarray this season despite Harry Kane scoring 38 goals in all competitions - 32 in the Bundesliga - in what has been a remarkable first season in German football. But Tuchel appears to have lost control and is on his way out at the end of the campaign and Arsenal will surely never have a better chance of beating Bayern.
Even though Arsenal have beaten Bayern three times in their 12 meetings, they have never got past the German giants in the knock-out stage. Bayern have won their last three meetings against the Gunners 5-1.
But Bayern director of sport Max Eberl has warned that they must stop their “arrogant” attitude of always expecting results just to come good. Eberl said: “There's a sense of 'it'll work out somehow.’ Last year it did work out somehow.
"We're where we are and that's seven points ahead of fifth place. We should get rid of this arrogance around the fact that we're only second. We deserve to be second for now.”
Bayern sporting director Christoph Freund was just as brutal and claimed the players need to do some soul searching. Freund said: “Every player should look at themselves in the mirror afterwards and think about whether they gave it their best.
“Conceding three goals in one half in Heidenheim after leading 2-0 can't be our standard. We're already talking about the fact that everyone has to scrutinise their performance. We've now lost two games in a week.
“It's bitter and really disappointing, but we now have to build our energy up again for Tuesday. We all know that we can do things differently than today, and we must.”
Tuchel added: “We were extremely careless in the tackles before conceding the goals and individual performances were too weak. We went into the break 2-0 up and had everything completely under control. We're finding it difficult to maintain our concentration at the level we want within games and during the weeks.”