AC Milan boss Gennaro Gattuso has been speaking about the challenge of beating Arsenal ahead of the Rossoneri’s Europa League last 16 first leg tie at the San Siro on Thursday.

The former Milan legend who played more than 300 Serie A games for the team he landed two Champions League trophies with was talking ahead of the game.

The midfielder who won the 2006 World Cup with Italy previewed the fixture which has seen more than 65,000 tickets sold with the travelling Gunners expected to add another 4,000 to the total.

But Gattuso insisted his side would not be affected by the expectation generated by the passionate home crowd about beating Arsene Wenger’s Gunner who have showed poor form since the turn of the year.

He said: “We can’t be afraid of the 70,000 crowd [at San Siro], we need to play with great technical and physical quality. If we do that we can cause them a lot of problems.”

“The worry is how to stop Arsenal scoring,” said the Milan boss. “When I go to bed I dream of Ozil.

“Arsenal are a technical team that doesn’t like defensive transitions. We’ll have to do well not to suffer from what they do, and then make them run when we have the ball.

“It’s not a challenge with him, because in that regard it’s not a contest,” Gattuso said in his pre-match press conference.

“He’s won so much in his career, he’s been managing the same club for so long.”

With Arsenal struggling for form after losing four games in a row including the Carabao Cup final Gattuso added: “It will be an interesting match, with more of a new philosophy like mine against him and his experience. He likes to play a style based heavily on possession.

“I’ll greet him and I’ll put myself in my corner, but there’s no comparison that can be made.

“I’ve been through games like this as a player, everything is different now. Compared to Wenger I’m in the children’s team, I’m just starting and he’s been coaching for 30 years.”