Mathieu Valbuena
Valbeuna one of those good enough for Arsenal, says Sagna. (Reuters)

Bacary Sagna has warned his Arsenal teammates that some of Marseille's key men are good enough to take their place in the Gunners' starting XI.

Arsene Wenger's side take on Marseille at the Stade Velodrome knowing that this is likely to be their best opportunity to pick up points on the road, with daunting trips to Napoli and last season's runners up Borussia Dortmund on the horizon.

Likely to feature in the Ligue 1 side's starting line-up tonight against the Gunners are France internationals Dimitri Payet, Andre-Pierre Gignac and Mathieu Valbuena, and Sagna believes that his fellow countrymen are more than capable of disrupting his side's Champions League aspirations.

"(Marseille's French internationals) could easily play for Arsenal," Sagna told his club's official website.

"I think technically they are at the top and they have a lot of quality and they are used to playing big games. We've talked about the game and they are ready to play against us.

"I think we have one of the toughest groups because we have three quality teams to play against. We played Napoli in the Emirates Cup and we played Dortmund two years ago in the Champions League which was really difficult and they made the final last year.

"Marseille is probably the best team in France. They have good players, some of them play with the national team and we played them two years ago and it wasn't easy so we know it's going to be quite hard."

This will be Arsenal's 16<sup>th consecutive season in Europe's premier tournament, but Wenger will be faced with one of his toughest European challenges to date in escaping from an exceptionally challenging group.

Taking points from their opener would leave the Gunners in good stead ahead of home ties against Napoli and Dortmund, but in order to do that they must find a way of nullifying the threat of Mathieu Valbuena.

The diminutive playmaker is Marseille's creative hub and Sagna has stressed the importance of ensuring his fellow Frenchman sees as little as the ball as possible.

"He is quite difficult to catch," Sagna added.

"He is really small and moves a lot. He creates a lot of chances so we need to be on form that day and we need to play our way, dictate the game and show we are Arsenal."