Mikel Arteta wants to be the man to end Arsenal’s long wait for European silverware.
The north Londoners last tasted success abroad in the 1993-94 Cup Winners’ Cup, nearly 30 years ago.
But Arteta has taken a strong squad out to Zurich as his men kick off their Europa League campaign.
“That’s a long time and I would like to be the first one to break that negative record,” he said.
“But you have to start somewhere and it’s now. So it’s time to play well and earn the right to win the match.
“We don’t have that many players available unfortunately with injuries we picked up in the last two weeks.
Defeat at Manchester United last Sunday ended a flawless start to the Premier League season with six wins out of six.
But Arteta sees this tie as the perfect opportunity for his side to bounce back to winning ways ahead of Everton at home on Sunday.
“This is a competition that we want to take very seriously against an opponent that is going to make life difficult for us,” he added.
“So we want to start the competition in the right way and maintain our momentum.”
Thomas Partey and Mo Elneny both miss the trip to Switzerland, along with Emile Smith Rowe.
Zurich have won just five of their 13 matches so far this season and tumbled out of Champions League qualifying at the hands of FA Qarabag.
But Arteta will order his men not to turn up expecting to win easily. “The biggest danger is that they haven’t got the results that they probably expected after the season they had last year,” he said. “You can see how willing they are to win football matches and this is a different competition with a different context. I expect a team that will be very ready.”
Arteta was ready himself to respond to a claim from former keeper Bernd Leno that politics rather than performances saw him axed from the club.
Leno lost his place to Aaron Ramsdale last season and ended his four-year spell with the Gunners by joining Fulham last month.
But he told German daily Bild on Wednesday: “When I realised that it wasn’t about performance or quality, I knew that I had to go. “In preparation, I saw that it is not about performance, but only about politics. It was clear to me, I had to get out of here.”
But Arteta hit back: “I’m really surprised and I don't know if he’s talking about the politics when he was starting every match or the politics when he wasn’t playing. Really surprised about it.”
