Monaco aim to oust Arsenal and secure Champions League process

While other European powers got stronger last summer, Monaco lost Radamel Falcao, James Rodriguez, Eric Abidal, Lucas Ocampos and Emmanuel Riviere and nobody expected them to make a major Champions League impact, even after they were drawn in a group with Zenit, Benfica and Bayer Leverkusen.

However, Jardim's men finished top having ridden their luck at times and relied on being efficient defensively -- one goal conceded -- and offensively, scoring four times from only 14 shots on target).

At the draw for the Round of 16, it must be quite a strange, somewhat insulting, feeling for CEO Vadim Vasilyev, who knew that every group runner-up wanted to play his team, which was widely perceived to be the weakest of the eight winners.

Indeed, Jardim said before the first leg last month: "The Arsenal fans are happy to play against us? Trust me, the Monaco fans are happy we are playing against Arsenal."

In the Champions League, Monaco have adopted a "let's prove everybody wrong" attitude, one which the following anecdote sums up perfectly.

On the morning of the first leg, a French journalist handed to Luis Campos, the club's sporting director, an English newspaper on which the headline read "Easy Road for Arsenal". "Thank you, Campos replied. I will show it to the players and it will spur them on." The rest is history.

Monaco's players and manager have been exceptional in the face of adversity and have fed their league ambitions -- a top three finish -- with their Champions League form and vice-versa. With nine toes in the quarterfinals, they are currently fourth in Ligue 1, four points behind third-place Marseille with a game in hand.

Jardim deserves credit for the results but also worthy of recognition is Rybolovlev, who was at the Emirates, despite rarely travelling to away matches.

To be clear, football is a hobby, not a business for the 48-year-old Russian who is valued at $8.5 billion by Forbes. He bought the club for one euro back in December 2011 when the team was 17th in the second division and has brought Monaco back to the summit of French football, where it belongs.

However, the manner in which the turnaround has occurred was not the way Rybolovlev would have wanted it originally. What he wanted was to emulate Roman Abramovich and Chelsea and he would have spent several hundred million to build a great team.

However, the difference between the Abramovich and Rybolovlev eras is Financial Fair Play and Monaco owner realised quickly that the club didn't have the resources, be they ticketing, marketing or sponsoring, to cope with heavy spending and stay in line with UEFA's restrictions.

So he changed his philosophy. Instead of the Falcaos and the James', he bought young and promising players like Silva, Geoffrey Kondogbia, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Anthony Martial and married them with the right manager in Jardim, plus inexperienced, older heads like Dimitar Berbatov, Jeremy Toulalan, Joao Moutinho and Ricardo Carvalho.

Monaco's results have also proved that, for all the talent in the world, if players don't play and fight for each other as a unit, progress is more difficult. In the Principality, the "let's prove the doubters wrong" mentality has been bought into and is keeping everyone on their toes.

Despite Monaco's 3-1 lead, ahead of Tuesday's game there are many who seem convinced that Arsenal will still go through with a wonderful comeback.

Those sentiments will suit the Monaco players. They have only conceded one goal in their last 12 home games in all competitions and Arsenal will have to score three in 90 minutes.

Before the match, Monaco will honour Wenger for his achievements during seven years at the Monaco between 1987-1994.

However, if Les Monegasques go through and their season continues like this, it's more likely that Jardim will deserve a silver trinket and Rybolovlev might get the Monaco passport he so craves.