PHOTO CONTRIBUTED BY MICHAEL ROZMAN/WARNER BROS

Kathryn Youngman, right, talks with Ellen DeGeneres during a taping of “The Ellen DeGeneresShow” that aired Monday.

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For the past several weeks, students of Pendleton High School Spanish teacher Kathryn Youngman waged a Twitter campaign to get their teacher on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show.” Youngman, fighting cancer for the third time, has long admired the comedienne for her positivity. The hashtag trended with tweets originating around the world.

A producer finally invited Youngman to fly to Los Angeles and observe an “Ellen” taping, and last Thursday, Youngman and two family members settled into their seats among the audience to watch the show. The episode would feature “X-Files” actor David Duchovny and air the following Monday.

During the show, DeGeneres approached Youngman in the audience for a conversation about attitude. The comedienne invited Youngman to stand and talk about facing challenges.

“It’s totally about attitude and I also think it’s totally about being kind to one another,” Youngman said. “I get my inspiration from you and your show. Be kind to one another. Kindness and spreading it to other people is a great message. It helps you get through these times.”

“These times” referred to Youngman’s breast cancer, which requires chemo treatments every two weeks. At the show, DeGeneres fixed her blue eyes on Youngman’s hazel-brown ones.

“You know, I love talking to interesting people and we have a lot of famous people that come on the show,” DeGeneres said, “but it’s stories like yours that actually I … think about when I go home at night.”

She gave Youngman a long hug.

DeGeneres’ staff heaped red carpet treatment on Youngman, flying her to LA on Wednesday, sending a chauffeur to collect her entourage (her niece, Katie Montchalin, and daughter, Becky Youngman) and drive them to a hotel near Universal Studios. The next afternoon, the driver whisked them to the Warner Brothers Studios where “The Ellen Show” is produced. They were shown to a private green room and fed lunch. Youngman’s mother, Marie Groshong, and sister, Rebecca Barlow, joined them there.

Later from her seat in the audience, Youngman laughed at Duchovny and DeGeneres’ banter. During commercial breaks, staff members kept the audience in a high-energy frenzy with dance contests and pulsing music. Though she had worried about having enough stamina for the trip, Youngman just relaxed and enjoyed the adventure.

“She was so high and energetic. Her adrenaline was flowing,” Groshong said. “She had accomplished one of her dreams and she was in the clouds.”

“It was amazing,” Youngman said. “It surpassed my expectations.”

After the show, the producers treated the five women to dinner at an expensive Italian restaurant.

Youngman said she found DeGeneres to be quite genuine.

“She means what she says and she truly cares about other people,” the teacher said. “The people who work for her promote her values.”

That’s important to Youngman. She is using her third battle with cancer as a platform to promote her own values and the importance of being kind.

The day the show aired, Youngman had returned to reality with a crash. She spent the morning in chemotherapy. It was a lot of downtime to think about her surreal adventure in LA and all the folks who had made it happen. The businesses that held fundraisers for her medical fund. The students and their plethora of tweets.

After watching the show again at home, she expressed her gratitude.

“I’m so thankful to all the people who supported and encouraged me — the high school students and the community and the campaign that allowed me to go down there and spread the message of kindness.”

FILE – A campaign sign for Republican congressional candidate Dave Brat is posted in front of his home in Glen Allen, Virginia, June 12, 2014. Brat defeated House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in that year’s Republican primary.

WASHINGTON—

When the calendar turns to March in this year of the irate voter, the first wave of congressional Republicans will find out whether they have their very own Dave Brat waiting for them.

Brat was an underfunded, obscure college professor who shocked the political world in 2014 by ousting House Majority Leader Eric Cantor in what was supposed to be a no-contest Republican primary in Virginia. He now holds the Richmond-area seat and is one of the chamber’s more conservative and recalcitrant members.

Next month, GOP House members in a crescent curving from Texas to Illinois face the first congressional primaries in this incumbent-bashing, anti-establishment season of billionaire Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the leading Republican presidential contenders.

Nearly all House members are expected to survive. But a few face contests being watched for possible upsets by conservative challengers. Among them: Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady of Texas, and Reps. Martha Roby and Bradley Byrne of Alabama and John Shimkus of Illinois.

“It’s an open question whether we’ll see any serious candidates on the fringe right,” said Rob Engstrom, national political director of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which has started TV advertising backing Roby and Byrne and could engage in other House races. He said that March 1, when Alabama, Arkansas and Texas have the initial House primaries, is “a very important day to measure and determine what the score is.”

Mississippi House primaries are March 8, followed by Ohio and Illinois a week later. March 15 House contests in North Carolina have been delayed until June because of a dispute over redrawing district boundaries.

As usual, most incumbents have overwhelming financial and name-recognition advantages. In Texas, Brady’s campaign raised $1.6 million last year, compared with $64,000 for the best financed of his three challengers, pool company owner and former state Rep. Steve Toth.

That edge has long made most officeholders impossible to topple. In 2014, just five sitting House members were defeated in party primaries. But 2016 poses a new test, with voters’ ill feelings toward Washington, fanned by Trump and Cruz, fueling conservatives’ hopes of defeating Republicans deemed too willing to cut deals.

“The frustration and anger that’s out there would indicate that this is the year you get beat from the right,” said Republican Rep. Mark Meadows, like Brat a member of the rebellious House Freedom Caucus that last year helped push Republican House Speaker John Boehner, to resign from Congress. “If you don’t get beat this year, you will be golden for a long time.”

The surly mood has prompted the conservative Club for Growth to run hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of TV ads attacking Shimkus and Rep. Renee Ellmers in a now-delayed North Carolina race. Club commercials also back conservative Warren Davidson’s bid for Boehner’s vacant seat in western Ohio, which if successful would be a symbolic coup.

Other groups including FreedomWorks, Citizens United Political Victory Fund and the Senate Conservatives Fund are also helping conservative contenders.

Brady is among 13 Texas GOP House incumbents facing primary opponents, challenges that are mostly considered long-shots. He’s represented his district north of Houston for two decades and last fall became chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee, a combination that makes him a household name locally and a national magnet for political contributions.

He also boasts endorsements from National Right to Life, the National Rifle Association and a sky-high 95 percent lifetime rating from the American Conservative Union. A primary defeat of a sitting Ways and Means chairman would be unprecedented, says Eric Ostermeier, research associate at the University of Minnesota’s Center for the Study of Politics and Governance.

“A lot of things get said during election season,” Brady recently emailed supporters, “but the facts about my dedication to conservative, limited government principles are clear.”

Toth says Brady isn’t conservative enough. He says anger toward establishment Republicans is “off the charts” and predicts he’ll be helped by the Texas’ March 1 presidential primary, the same day as the state’s congressional primaries.

“Seventy percent of the people who come to the polls here in Texas are going to be voting for either Trump or Cruz,” said Toth. “And they’re not going to pull the lever for Kevin Brady.”

Wally Wilkerson Jr., longtime Republican Party chairman in Montgomery County, the district’s largest, cites a “very unusual” political climate with lots of unhappy voters.

“The congressman is taking it seriously,” Wilkerson says of his re-election race. “If I was advising him, that’s what I’d tell him.”

In rural southern Illinois, the $1.3 million Shimkus reported raising last year was nearly 10 times what challenger Kyle McCarter reported collecting. But playing on anti-incumbent fever, a Club for Growth ad targeting the 10-term veteran lawmaker says, “A guy who’s been in Washington 20 years ain’t going to fix it.”

In a recent interview, Shimkus countered by citing his supporters.

“If you’re endorsed by the National Right to Life, by the NRA and the Farm Bureau, it’s hard for anybody to say you’re not representing the district,” he said.

Arsenal’s hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Champions League were left hanging by a thread on Tuesday evening.

Lionel Messi scored twice in the final 20 minutes to ensure a 2-0 loss in the last 16’s first-leg and a body blow to Arsene Wenger’s side.

Messi finally got the better of Petr Cech after waiting years to net past him and he did so in style as just like London buses two goals came in one match.

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Cech was shown being floored by the brilliance of the Ballon d’Or winner as supporters on social media wasted no time in rubbing salt into Arsenal’s wounds as they look set to fall at the last 16 hurdle in Europe again.

A blistering counter-attack for Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar was always on the cards but it didn’t stop it sending shockwaves through Twitter when the first goal hit the back of the net.

Barcelona extended their unbeaten run to 33 games after Lionel Messi sealed win for them against Arsenal. (Source: AP)

Barcelona’s Lionel Messi broke free from Arsenal’s shackles to score two late goals and put the Champions League holders on the brink of the quarter-finals with a clinical 2-0 victory at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

The irrepressible Argentine, along with strike partners Luis Suarez and Neymar, had been subdued for most of the last 16, first-leg tie but came alive late on, clinically finishing off a lightning counter-attack and then dispatching a penalty.

“They are 95 percent through to the quarter-finals certainly,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, whose side had defended solidly for 71 minutes until crumbling, told reporters.

“It’s a shame we didn’t get any satisfaction because we put everything into it.”

Luis Enrique’s Barca side extended their unbeaten run to 33 matches and, barring something extraordinary in the return at the Nou Camp next month, will take their place in the last eight for the ninth season in a row.

“I liked everything we did tonight,” the Spaniard told reporters.

Messi has proved a thorn in Arsenal’s side on each of the last two occasions the teams have met in the Champions League.

In 2010 he scored four times in the last 16 second leg to send Barca through and a year later he struck twice in a 3-1 win in Spain after Arsenal had edged the first leg.

Messi, Suarez and Neymar had scored 91 goals in all competitions this season heading into Tuesday’s game but none of the feared trident managed an effort on target in the first half as Arsenal’s fans cranked up the decibel levels.

Arsenal were patient and should have gone ahead midway through the first half when Hector Bellerin’s scuffed shot fell for Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain but he scooped his effort straight into the arms of keeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen.

The Catalans began to move through the gears though and either side of halftime wasted two glorious chances.

Suarez, who has 41 goals in all competitions this term, headed Dani Alves’s dinked cross wide with the goal gaping before

Neymar was denied by goalkeeper Petr Cech after being played in by Andres Iniesta.

Starved of the ball for long periods, Arsenal still posed a threat and Ter Stegen did well to keep out Olivier Giroud’s close-range header from a Mesut Ozil cross.

Arsenal grew in belief but it cost them dear as they committed players forward and got stung on the break.

With 19 minutes left they lost the ball near Barca’s goal and Suarez and Neymar combined in devastating fashion, the Brazilian unselfishly picking out Messi who steadied himself before beating Cech for the first time in his career.

Suarez then hit the post when he should have scored before Messi scored again, this time with a calmly struck penalty after substitute Mathieu Flamini had tripped him.

Mainers will be served up a double scoop of caucuses the weekend of March 5 and 6 with Republicans caucusing in regional gatherings on Saturday and Democrats meeting Sunday in municipalities across the state.

Officials from both parties hope for and expect large turnouts as their members gather to determine which of their respective party’s presidential candidates will win their support. The events can also provide a setting for like-minded people to gather and network politically and socially.

“We’re anticipating a really big turnout,” said Bronwen Tudor, of Georgetown, chairwoman of the Sagadahoc County Democrats. Tudor said Democratic caucuses in some municipalities are being held in new locations because the former sites may be too small to accommodate this year’s anticipated turnout, largely driven by the ongoing, hotly contested presidential nomination race.

“It’s interesting, and a great way for Democrats to find one another,” she said. “It’s a social opportunity, as well as political.”

Maine Republicans will cast votes for presidential candidates by secret ballot at their caucuses, a new format that is part of other changes meant to provide a simpler, more direct and binding method for party members to make their choice.

“We’ve never done this before. It’s a brand new process,” said Rick Bennett, Maine GOP chairman. “It’s easy, it’s accessible, and an opportunity we haven’t had before. And we’re hoping people will appreciate that and take advantage of it.”

So what can attendees expect at each party’s Maine

REPUBLICAN PARTY

This year Republicans will vote for their preferred presidential candidate by secret ballot. While officials hope they’ll also stick around to network with their fellow party members and conduct other caucus business such as listening to candidate presentations and filling local and county party positions, they don’t have to do so to cast their votes for the presidential nominee.

Each regional convention will start with an hour in which unenrolled people or those not registered to vote can enroll and register to vote.

After that first hour, polls open for the following three hours during which the secret ballot voting will take place.

“People can come, and we hope they’ll stay and participate in the other activities and share camaraderie with fellow Republicans,” Bennett said. “But if they’re busy and want to get in and go and make their voice heard, you can cast your ballot and depart immediately.”

Another change for this round of Republican caucuses is the presidential votes taken at the caucuses will be binding on delegates, proportional to the March 5 caucus vote results. In the past, Bennett said, a presidential candidate who wanted to win Maine’s delegates had to follow a long and indirect route and turn out supporters to local caucuses and the state convention.

Kim Pettengill, of Farmingdale, chief caucus warden for the Maine Republican Party, expects a high turnout for their caucuses this year in part because of the interest in the new, more direct voting.

Pettengill, who attended her first caucus in 1974 and has gone every two years ever since, is looking forward to this year’s round.

“I enjoy them. You get to see people you don’t always see,” she said. “And (this year) it’s different, a more substantive vote. I think a lot of people who’ve never been to a caucus before are interested in it.”

Each of the 22 regional caucus sites will have an hour reserved for presidential speeches. Those speeches, Bennett said, can be by surrogates speaking on behalf of candidates, including local supporters and national campaign representatives, or if any choose to make an appearance, presidential candidates themselves.

Caucus locations and other information is available on the Maine Republican Party’swebsite at www.mainegop.com.

DEMOCRATIC PARTY

Maine Democrats have two different ways to weigh in with their preference for the presidential nominee this year. They can join one of the Democratic caucuses to be held March 6 at municipalities across Maine, or they can vote absentee.

Absentee ballots, available at the party’s website at www.mainedems.org, must be received by the Maine Democratic Party by 5 p.m. on March 2, according to Jeremy Kennedy, executive director of the Maine party. Caucus locations and times are also listed at that site.

Maine Democrats won’t vote by secret ballot at their caucuses. Instead, they vote in more of a town meeting-style format.

After the caucus proceedings get underway, attendees will physically divide up into separate groups based upon their presidential preference, and the number of each people in each group will be counted. The allocated number of delegates for that caucus will then be divided up proportionally based on how many supporters each candidate for the presidential nominee receives.

“Caucuses are very different from a primary,” Kennedy said. “At the caucus, you make a public declaration of presidential support. It’s kind of like a town meeting, where you are there with the other people of your town, discussing issues and doing the other business of the caucus. The main event is the presidential portion.”

Candidates or their representatives or supporters from the community may speak at the caucuses.

Other party business conducted at caucuses include the election of local and county committee members and discussion of other party issues. Attendees at some caucuses will be able to meet candidates for state and other offices, as well.

Tudor, a former Vassalboro resident who has been attending caucuses in Maine since 1974, said she anticipates turnout will be high this year, given the strong feelings people supporting the potential presidential nominees seem to have.

She said some caucuses have been moved to new sites to accommodate the expected larger turnout. In Richmond, for example, Democrats will caucus at Marcia Buker Elementary School out of concern the previous site at the town office might be too small.

Residents who are not registered to vote or registered as unenrolled voters may register to vote at caucus locations in the hour before the scheduled caucus start time.

Keith Edwards — 621-5647

kedwards@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @kedwardskj

After more than three hours of impassioned public comment Monday night, Charlotte City Council approved new legal protections for gay, lesbian and transgender people – a decision that will likely provoke a battle with the General Assembly, which could nullify the city’s historic vote.

Council members approved expanding the city’s existing nondiscrimination ordinance in a 7-4 vote.

The decision elicited cheers and hugs from supporters, many carrying signs that read “Facts Not Fear.” Opponents of the ordinance, many with signs that read, “Don’t Do It Charlotte,” were upset by the decision.

The changes mean businesses in Charlotte can’t discriminate against gay, lesbian or transgender customers, in addition to long-standing protections based on race, age, religion and gender. The ordinance applies to places of public accommodation, such as bars, restaurants and stores. It also applies to taxis.

The most controversial part of the ordinance would allow transgender residents to use either a men’s or women’s bathroom, depending on the gender with which they identify.

The bathroom provision sparked the most opposition, with opponents mostly worried about the safety of women and girls in a public bathroom with people who were born male. Supporters said those fears were overblown, and that transgender people are at risk of violence in the bathroom.

In an email Sunday, Gov. Pat McCrory said the bathroom provision would likely cause “immediate” action by legislators.

In North Carolina, the General Assembly has the ultimate power over municipalities. Legislators could strike down the entire ordinance, or they could eliminate the provision that allows for bathroom flexibility. They also could send the issue to voters to decide in a referendum.

Council members have acknowledged that Raleigh may trump their decision Monday. But supporters said it was important to pass an expanded ordinance.

A year ago, the ordinance failed in a 6-5 vote.

But two new at-large members – Julie Eiselt and James Mitchell – were elected to the council in November, and both supported the ordinance.

Democrat Al Austin voted for the ordinance.

“Are we a city that panders to fear and hate to those who wish to perpetuate fear and injustice?” Austin asked. “I say to you, ‘Not on my watch.’ ”

Democrat Patsy Kinsey, who voted for the ordinance, likened the ordinance’s passage to her efforts more than a decade ago to bring domestic partner benefits to same-sex city employees.

Eiselt criticized the speakers who opposed the ordinance. She said if they were her church, she “wouldn’t return.”

Republican Ed Driggs voted against the ordinance. He said the bathroom provision is troubling.

“Everyone is required to use the bathroom of their gender – you can’t get more equal than that,” Driggs said. “It’s not the back of the bus.”

Driggs was joined by Democrats Claire Fallon and Greg Phipps and Republican Kenny Smith in voting no.

Earlier this year, Fallon said she would vote for the ordinance. She said she couldn’t support the bathroom provision Monday.

The Chilean spent three seasons at Camp Nou, but always appeared to shrink in the presence of the Argentine attacker and was eventually sold to fund a move for Luis Suarez

Had things turned out differently, Alexis Sanchez could be lining up for Barcelona againstArsenal on Tuesday night. As it is, however, he will be featuring for the Gunners against his former club and a player with whom he never truly gelled. In Spain, the Chilean was never able to emerge from the shadow of Lionel Messi.

Alexis arrived at Barca in the same summer as Cesc Fabregas. Big things were expected of both players, but the two ended up leaving three years later and neither can be considered a real success for the Catalan club.

At Arsenal, Sanchez is adored – just as Cesc had been prior to his departure and subsequent move to Chelsea in 2014. “People love him here,” Gunners great Thierry Henry told Barca’s official website in an interview this week. “They can’t understand why Barca let him leave. But if you have [Luis] Suarez, Neymar and Messi, then you can understand it.”

The Chilean, along with Fabregas, was sold to fund a move for the Uruguay striker in the summer of 2014 and Barca’s brilliant trident was formed. The ‘MSN’ moniker was born with Suarez, not Sanchez – and the former Liverpool striker has proved much more successful than his predecessor.

“I never regret my decisions,” Sanchez said this week. “It wasn’t easy to leave Barcelona. I fulfilled a dream when I moved there – to play in Spain and for the champions – but very few players stay in the same club all their life. To leave is normal. I wanted a new project, a new experience. And with so many attacking players at Barca it was a good choice to go.”

And that is perhaps the difference. Whereas the Chilean considered himself one of “so many attacking players at Barca”, Suarez made himself indispensable virtually from day one. While Alexis was in and out of the team all through his three-year stay at Camp Nou, the Uruguayan’s impact was so great that homegrown favourite Pedro left the club the following summer due to a lack of playing time – even when Barca were unable to sign a replacement.

Shy and introverted, Sanchez took time to come to terms with the move to the Blaugrana and did not speak to the media until his second season at the Catalan club. In those early days, he said little in the dressing room too and at one point Messi even asked his agent for help in bringing the player out of his shell.

At Udinese, Alexis attacked the spaces from deep in a counter-attacking style that suited his game. At Barca, however, he was forced to operate much further forward and the change proved difficult, where adapting his game for Messi was a particular struggle.

Alexis is not the first forward to have had problems adapting alongside the world’s finest footballer. Zlatan Ibrahimovic lasted only a season as Pep Guardiola moved Messi into the centre, while David Villa was utilised on the left and endured a tense relationship with the Argentine attacker at times.

With Alexis, however, there was no fallout. Encouraged to work hard in order to create space and goals for Messi, the Chilean did as he was told, but perhaps went too far: he often passed to his team-mate even if he was in a better position himself and always appeared confined with Leo in the team. Indeed, many of his best games were when the Argentine was out.

There were memorable moments, of course, especially in his third and final season. Those included a wonderful winner against Real Madrid in a Clasico clash at Camp Nou and another special strike on the final day of the season that almost saw Barca win the title.

Alexis played his finest football in that campaign under Gerardo Martino and the current Argentina coach gave a unique insight into the Chilean’s character in an interview with Goalrecently.

“We were just about to start an exercise in training,” he said. “He was 50 metres away. I called him: ‘Ale, Ale’. And he started sprinting towards me as if it were a match. I thought: ‘What’s up with him to make him come so fast?’ So I asked him: ‘What’s up? Are you crazy?’ And he said: ‘Well, because we’re fighting…"”

Sanchez had thought the pair were fighting because he had read it in the newspaper. Yet he had not taken the matter up with the coach until the Argentine had asked him what was wrong. It is hard to imagine Suarez staying silent in a similar situation.

It is also difficult to know how Alexis would have fared under Luis Enrique. In 2013-14, he featured alongside a Neymar who was still adjusting to life in Spain and a Messi who was enduring a season interrupted by injuries. In the current set-up, in addition, the Argentine is also much more generous than before, creating chances and assisting for his team-mates increasingly these days.

Alexis may never have benefitted from that, but in three full years at the club he never grabbed his chance like Suarez has done. And he never stepped out of the shadows of the world’s best player. Which is why the two men will be on opposing sides when Arsenal meet Barcelona on Tuesday night.

Giroud and Wenger speaking ahead of Tuesday’s clash with Barcelona. (Picture: Getty)

Olivier Giroud is confident that Arsenal can beat Barcelona ahead of their eagerly anticipated Champions League clash.

Tonight’s clash with the La Liga giants is the fourth time in ten years that the two sides have gone head to head in Europe’s elite competition, including a 2-1 Barcelona victory in 2006’s final.

Wenger has only managed to beat his Spanish opposition once in that time after a 2-1 victory at the Emirates first-leg in 2011 but eventually succumbed to an overall defeat after a Messi brace sealed the second fixture.

But for Arsenal striker Giroud, he and his team-mates believe victory over Bayern Munich in October proves the club can beat the world’s best sides but they need to be at their 100 per cent best.

‘We would love to beat them because they look unstoppable. We need to play our best game and being all together and at 100 per cent, of course,’ Giroud told the Mirror. ‘Otherwise we’re not going to play this game to lose it.

‘We are confident, we need to be confident and play the Arsenal way. After, we’ll see. We did well against Munich. We know that we can beat big teams but there is one thing for sure: that we need to be at 100 per cent and determined.

‘I think it will be a different game than against Bayern. We can do very well in the Champions League. We just need to focus and give 100 per cent all together with good team cohesion.

‘We managed that against Bayern and that will help us to win tomorrow.’

The former Blaugrana superstar believes that the Gunners will be destroyed on the break by Lionel Messi, Luis Suarez and Neymar if they commit to many men forward.

Former Barcelona superstar Michael Laudrup believes a lack of pace will fatally undermineArsenal’s attempts to cause a major Champions League shock against his old side.

The Gunners will start as underdogs when they take on the reigning European champions at the Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their last-16 tie on Tuesday, despite already having beaten German titleholders Bayern Munich at home earlier in the competition.

Laudrup, who masterminded victory over Arsenal during his time as manager of Swansea City, believes the likes of Lionel Messi and Luis Suarez will fill their boots if Arsene Wenger’s side overcommit to attack.

He told Goal: “I have seen Arsenal quite a few times this season. When they have a good day, they are the best team in the Premier League.

The Gunners take on Barcelona at the Emirates in the Champions League on Tuesday, and the former striker has backed Arsene Wenger’s men to come out on top

Thierry Henry has backed Arsenal to beat Barcelona after being pictured with his former Camp Nou team-mates on Monday.

The former striker caught up with Lionel Messi & Co. at the Emirates Stadium as they trained ahead of their clash with the Gunners in the Champions League.

Arsenal fans were not best pleased with the pictures, but Henry has now thrown his weight behind the Gunners as they bid to become the first team since Sevilla in October to beat the Catalan giants.

“It was nice to see the boys from my old club Barcelona yesterday but it’s time to step up and make history tonight Arsenal,” he wrote on Twitter.

Barca are currently top of La Liga and have lost just twice all season, with Luis Enrique’s men sitting eight points clear of second-placed Atletico Madrid.

The Gunners, meanwhile, sit third in the Premier League, level on points with London rivals Tottenham and two behind leaders Leicester City.