Match Report – Flat Arsenal out of Champions League after Bayern Munich loss

The Champions League journey comes to an end for Arsenal following their defeat to Bayern Munich this evening in Germany.

The game kicked off with high expectations, however, it was Arsenal who survived an early scare when Harry Kane sliced his shot wide after being set up by Joshua Kimmich.

Gabriel Martinelli had an opportunity to open the scoring for Arsenal early on but missed wide off the post.

Despite enjoying a great spell of possession, it was Bayern who appeared closer to scoring the opener.

Jamal Musiala unleashed a stunning long-range shot, but David Raya made a crucial save.

Martin Odegaard nearly broke the deadlock with a deflected shot, but Manuel Neuer managed to save it.

Neuer was forced into another good save from Martinelli as Arsenal began to look more threatening.

The game remained tightly contested as both teams attacked and defended well, leaving fans eagerly awaiting the first goal.

Joshua Kimmich broke the deadlock for Bayern Munich with a stunning header following a good move.

Leroy Sane missed a chance to double Bayern’s lead shortly after.

Mikel Arteta brought on Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus in an attempt to turn the game around, reminiscent of their performance in the first leg.

Arsenal enjoyed spells of possession but struggled to break down Bayern’s defence, despite earning a couple of corners.

Jesus had a chance to equalise but missed the target, though it wouldn’t have counted due to an offside flag.

Arteta introduced Eddie Nketiah late in the game in a bid to salvage the tie, but Arsenal’s best chance fell to Odegaard, who was denied by Neuer.

Nketiah couldn’t make an impact, and the game ended with a disappointing corner from Saka, encapsulating Arsenal’s frustrating night.

The reaction to this result from the fans will not be kind to the players or the manager.

Tags Bayern Munich v Arsenal Match Report

126 Comments

Add a Comment
  1. Yeah no excuse for not playing partey. Partey is the equivalent of Rodri, maybe not in accolades but definitely in ability.

    Replace him if injury was the only issue

      1. My brother in Christ, have you seen Partey play? He is the best DM in the world when fit. And that’s when playing in an average Arsenal team.
        Rodri has the advantage of playing in the best team in the world under the best manger in the world

  2. Frustrating game. Seems like we priortize possession over goal attempts a times. Overall a more solid performance compared to what we played at home, even though we lost.

    Focus now on PL. On to the next.

    COYG!

  3. We knew this is coming. The question is if Arteta is our Klopp or Brendan Rodgers. Not saying he should be fired but if he doesn’t win the EPL next year, then he needs to go. If he doesn’t win any major title after 6 years in charge with close to a billion spent, there is no point in keeping him. We have been terrible in the cup tournaments and fail short in EPL too. Per stats we have the best attack and defense and yet nothing to show for.

    1. Funny you write that my friend a Liverpool fan was texting me there saying the same thing that Mikel is our Brendan Rodgers… never thought of that until he said it now it’s on here

    2. Spot on mate. If we want to win the league title, we definitely need a new manager. The problem is the board is happy, because we are back to CL football and the way things were under Wenger. Money in the bank and no desire to win anything.

      The lack of fight, heart and desire in the second half was absolutely criminal.

    3. Of course we are still like Liverpool for fluffing the chances. We control ball in final third of ground and yet when its time to shoot or head or pass then we just fluff it, like a volleyball pass. In a game like this we were not able to get any corners. After we conceded, we showed no urgency and indeed played worse. We are not playing from back but we are playing at the back, and killing any chances of counterattack. We let opponents regroup too easily and make ourselves in difficult situations. Saka is much overrated and easily bullied by strong defender. Our best team in 20 yrs cant even win Bayern worst team in 20 yrs who was missing many of their key players. That sums everything about quality and mentality of our club. Our season is well over in a span of a week. Now time to relax and wait for next season.

    1. Why would Odegaard get 8

      He was also below par (but I believe he’s playing through an injury)

      I’d rather give Jorginho 8

      He was always trying to do something

      I want to assume Martinelli is still injury-cautious
      For him to never for once try to beat Kimmich with his pace- which we now Kimmich can never handle

  4. Xabi Alonso only 1 season has bagged the Bundesliga,someone 5yrs still going talking about phase 1,2 3,4 5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13 i can go on. Nothing to show for it,I hate to say this but players Saka,Saliba will leave this team,and I guess it’s even playing I their minds as I type.

  5. I am disappointed that we didn’t really come alive in this game – well not early enough and then not convincingly enough.

    A bridge too far unfortunately. Someone in the last article referred to over use of some players leading to running on empty. That is a possibility, but Odegaard never stops.

    We do have some experienced players but not sufficient it seems to rub the fairy dust on the rest

    1. Yeas, SueP. Odegaard was typically giving everything. I honestly would rate most of the rest very average over the two legs. Saka and Martinelli had very little impact. Considering they’re our spear in attack I’m not surprised we’re out. I just hope this season doesn’t fizzle out after tonight. Need to see a fighting spirit for the EPL.

  6. Very disappointing, season crumbled in 4 days. Never really laid a glove on Bayern. Very poor.
    I think if we want to hang around the top 4 and be fodder for the CL, Arteta is our man. If we want to win something we need a change.
    Our football is not clever. Its naive and we dont keep our shape under pressure. Bayern are not a bad team but they aren’t great either. We did nothing clever tonight. In fact, I think deep down, we all knew what was going to happen. Its becoming typical. I didn’t understand tonight or the weekend. Odergaard was a one man press. Now anyone who knows football knows that doesn’t work. It all or nothing. You do it together or not at all. Our composure and play under pressure fails everytime. The excuses last season was injuries. What will the apologists find as an excuse for identical situations this. NOTHING was learnt from last season. NOTHING.

  7. Lady luck didn’t smile upon us. Hopefully Man City will suffer from fatigue after their UCL match and slip in EPL

    If Arteta survive this season, he’d better sign a more physically-dominant CF in the summer. I think Jesus is more suited to play in midfield or on the left wing

    1. Let’s stop deceiving ourselves they never suffer fatigue

      We need a goal-scoring-machine, not just a physically dominating striker

      We need a Striker who needs only half chances

      Aguero today, we’d probably scored in the 1st half and definitely be leading Aston Villa by 2 before half time

      We need a Scorer

      1. The CF must be clinical too, but his hold-up play/ strength/ stamina should be more important and a great aerial ability would be a bonus

        Kane is a world-class finisher, but his inability to do constant high-press made Bayern Muenchen suffer this season. Man United also sit in the second place in EPL before the old Ronaldo came

        1. I’ll like to know how physically dominant a striker like Lewandoski is…coz he spearheaded the attack of bayern for years. So, to say bayern struggled this season because they have a striker like Kane is out of point. Who is the physically dominant striker in the real Madrid team presently? How physically dominant was Vardy? Sometimes, being Logical in argument is necessary, not just holding on to an idea that’s got no basis

    2. @Gai, once again I agree with you.
      I think we need to sell Pathey if he isn’t fit to play this kind of match.

      Wee need a physicality dominant and technical midfielder to join Rice and Odegard. Jorginho energy obviously gone. We had no CF forward that could even compete in the box against Bayerns towering center backs.
      The gaffer setup is too predictable but as the saying goes “you can’t give what you don’t have.

      The Boys tried their best, it’s time to concentrate on epl to see what we can get there.

      1. The problem has nothing to do with being physically dominant. In the current Arsenal team, there’s probably only one or two players (Saka and Odegard) who can nurture the idea of taking on an opposition and successfully executing the idea….opposition knows how you’re going to play (short passes without any direct play). We literally have no player in the starting eleven that bold and comfortable launching a long pass with accuracy…so, we literally have no balance in play; just pass and pass, then pass into the box hoping a defender will be slack enough to allow a tap in. Tuchel said I know how arsenal plays, then he described it, and we played exactly as he said we’ll play. It’s not about dominant anything….the patter remains rigid and the same all through, no spices, nothing added…just the same pattern all season

  8. Toothless arsenal. What is annoying in this game is that there was never a time during the match that I felt arsenal was going to score. The team is so flat footed, no movement, no zeal and no ambition. For both Arteta and Havertz lovers, can they just mention one thing that this team has that makes them to believe in Arteta and Havertz. For arsenal to win trophies Arteta must go. This is just the old arsenal under Wenger. It is painful and unbearable, I don’t even know how I can sleep tonight.

  9. Our plan B tonight was to just freshen up the players in our predictable plan A. It felt like I was watching Ireland play, inferior in every department and hoping we might get a Gabriel goal from a set piece.

    Even bringing Jesus on, in the 90th minute, he was hanging around in the right back position while we had possession. And then Eddie on….. Oooh, Bayern were quaking in their boots.

    We need to sign 2 very different strikers in the summer. We just need to become less predictable with a quality striker and a decent one that come on and give us something different.

    Kroenkes were there tonight, hopefully they were as bored as we all were and could see what we need to get to the next level.

  10. Never turned up …..again. Havertz full 90. Arteta reactive not pro. Arsenal need an elite manger who knows how to coach players. Arteta don’t know how to for sure

  11. Out with a whimper. We looked fairly composed in the first half but we lacked any cutting edge. Highly disappointing, but we were simply not up to it on the night.

  12. We mainly controlled the game, especially in the first half and Jorginho was outstanding (and his legs are fine) but obviously he needed to go off to let a more attacking player on when chasing the game. I’m proud of their performance but then again I’m an old realist not a young whipersnapper who wants instant success. I expect Konstantin will be posting tomorrow with another article slagging us off.

    1. Isn’t Konstatine simply being a clear headed realist and not being fooled by some of our average players who have been seriously overated by some of us fans. Arteta needs to lift his game and not waste valuable resources in filling positions that were already overmanned and be a lot smarter in identifying the right players to give us a sharper cutting edge.

      1. No disgrace, but no medals either. I really think we have made progress this season, but I also think we need to be realistic, we are still at least 3 players short of being on the next level. I am disappointed but not angry, I think MA picked the right team to start, but there will always be critics.

  13. I’m confident we are not having a repeat of last season, unlike others who believe our season is over, i think we will go one step further and win the league.

      1. After Aston Villa – this was a game to respond and do better BUT we were worse especially the front 4. Unfortunately, i have a bad feeling we won’t even beat Wolves leave alone Chelsea.

      1. It’s not use mate. I’ve been following this football club almost 20 years, people are more fans of the manager, players, the dog, the kit man, everything bar the football club itself.

        If you demand winning trophies, you’re “negative” , when in fact it’s the toxic positivety that’s prohibiting any sort of progress, which unfortunatelly requires looking at some harsh truths.

        1. 👍 for PJ-SA. GB revelling in the failures of others is small mentality, when the loss doesn’t impact on your team. Manchester City going out of the Champions League is bad for Arsenal in the League.

  14. Like said before arsenal will win nothing under arteta his just a poor manager very unskilled to even compare him to klopp or brendan Roger is disrespectful toward that managers

  15. Two costly mistakes from Martineli, he missed a glorious chance and he also didn’t track Kimmich for their goal. Am just losing patience now with Aterta and the team.

    It seems no one wants to stand up and be counted, there’s just no initiative at all. Martineli and Saka need some sitting on the bench they’re just awful, you just can’t expect a number 9 (Havertz) to score goals with no supply from the wide players

    1. How many of those chances has that Havertz buried? 1 out of every 8 or 10. When a player is always appearing, always on the team sheet, he’s going to look good to the fans, coz that’s the only option given to them. Gabriel Jesus was brought in then, some of us knows he’s not a clinical finisher; he was always on the team sheet, then fans began to hail him. Those signings are just a waste of resources.

  16. Well who would have thought it?
    No EPL clubs in the later stages.
    Jon Fox – it’s not been a great night for our chances of ousting City in the league 😔

      1. Jon, so the upside is that Tottenham Hotspur may not make fourth spot and miss out on Champions League. Didn’t expect this from you, when Spurs look like improving from last season and Arsenal lives in hope. Arsenal is what counts.

        1. Arsenal still have the PL to play for. Spurs are trying to make the top four.
          We are still a developing side and can improve from this season so what you are saying does not make sense.

          1. David, my point is that it is poor mentality to revel in the misfortune of others to deflect from the disappointment of your own achievements.
            It is the success and achievements (or otherwise) of the club we support, Arsenal, that should be at the forefront of our concerns.

  17. The ghastly news is that City are just now beaten by RM. Our Prem chances juast got far worse.

    Curse the two City players who hit awful pens and were easily saved.
    Our PREM CHANCES NOW ARE LONG ODDS, I AM AFRAID TO SAY!

            1. lol. you need to take note of my comments a bit more mate. maybe, just maybe you will know a lot more about me. for starters, post a link of my post claiming “we will going to roll over Bayern”. you clearly have MISSED many of my posts lately.

                1. No i didn’t, infact i’ve been saying on here since we managed to make the QFs through penalties till as recently as yesterday that we are not making it past Bayern. You can as well search my comments that states otherwise. Give it a try, very simple.

                    1. Again, no i didn’t, i take it as you found no actual evidence to back your claims, hence the bland replies. On top of that, you come across as having too big an ego to apologise, despite not being able to back your false claims.

        1. We do not actually know whether this will impact on MC. They had a chance at making history but have lost it. The way a couple of the penalties were taken suggested that the pressure also got to the MC players.
          It is disappointing to see so-called Arsenal fans demeaning the efforts of Arsenal players and already predicting a collapse. We are still in a title race.

  18. Just watched the extra time of Real v City. Two things came to my mind.
    One Modrich at 38 had more energy and nous, that any of our players tonight.
    Two when we signed Arteta, Ancelotti went to Everton. Where would both teams be now, if we got Ancelotti and Everton got Arteta. Probably have been better fits for both. Maybe not. But it just popped in. We do lack that bit of Experience.

  19. Arteta keeps on making same stupid changes. Why was haverts not subbed. Bayern controlled our whole midfield but yet we have partey on bench. Which he is way better than rice and jorginho. Damm next league game we just gonna upset again knew all season this is gonna happen that’s the arsenal standard

  20. I don’t get it why our fan base is saying give arteta another season to win a big trophy, he could not even win carabao cup in 4 seasons with 650m spent. That’s zero trophy from 16 chances. In no other big club that will be acceptable. Arteta is not the man, his track record shows that. When will our fan base wake up and smell the coffee. It’s not about CL , it’s about not even winning carabao cup. Man united in this dire state won 1 trophy n might win another. We did not even reach final of any cup. Absolutely pathetic. Get a winner manager in, who can take us over the line. Enough of this process, what do you want another season of this failed process?

  21. We’ve seen this story before. After getting out of everything, they will go to last home game and with nothing to play for, thrash Everton 4-0 or something.

    Saliba-Gabriel and Rice-Jorginho are actually good partnerships in any team There’s just no proper linkup play up top regularly. If not that then you need individual quality to show up at some point in the match and it didn’t happen. Same vs Villa, same vs City away.

  22. I don’t think Odegaard should be the one pressing opposition defense. Those positions must be occupied by Saka, Martinelli and Havertz. He needs to occupy the space between Havertz and Rice which always leaves a gap on our team. Goretzka dominated us in both games in that area. I still feel ESR brings a different dimension to Odegaard which must be used when Odegaard is not being productive. Lacazette used to press so well as a striker which Havertz and Jesus have failed to. Nketiah could have scored more than Havertz had he got enough game time considering all the goals Havertz has scored any forward child have managed to. Nothing special about him.

  23. Per last article, it’s looking clearer all the time that our high energy all-team pressing was very effective, but we’re paying for it late season with fatigued legs. Potentially, we had same issue pre-Dubai refresh. Need to get better at rotating.

    1. Odegaard made a telling comment in a post-match interview a couple of weeks back. He essentially said it was hard to have the energy on offence when you’ve spent so much energy pressing in defense.

  24. Not being a pessimist, but I think the best we can hope for is a CL place. We’ve gone back to pre Dubai days, since the international break, I always thought we’d do better to put on the kids against Bayern, and try and give some rest to our first team, although Dubai might not be the best place now! Kinda weird because in a lot of ways it mirrors our previous slump, Top of the league, after an international break, come out on the pitch looking like we’ve just run a marathon, and lose two completely winnable games on the trot, lets hope theres nota third and we stop the rot. I think Arteta put out the best team, Partey hasn’t looked his old self when he’s played, giving the ball away too easily and not getting to second balls, so I don’t think he’d of helped much, although he may have stopped their surging runs into our midfield. We can’t keep knocking the ball around the edge of the penalty box and losing it. Also what’s happened to our set pieces? Absolutely nothing from corners or free kicks from dangerous spots. Has there been enough training?

  25. Aww Arsenal 😞

    4 days and My heart is broke all over again like last year. We didn’t learn a thing. Lets hope we can at least win a few of these games and keep this challenge interesting as I don’t see City losing one game in the Prem or want to see them running away with it ,we need to make them work for it. Us and Liverpool BUT if they slip just once……

    Well 👀 let’s pray to God this happens

    1. Sean
      Firstly many apologies for a few sarcastic comments fired back to you on a previous post. Was feeling angry and I should have refrained from saying anything .
      Agree on heart not quite broken but feeling very sore.
      I do think on reflection that not many have mentioned was that we were not great last night but BM were set up great. Suffocated us, didn’t give us an inch in critical areas and used every bit of there CL experience to get over the line.
      We went to sleep at the back and they Took the chance when it came there way.
      Again apologies

      1. Alan you are 100% my friend, we were all very angry and upset last night. After last season I was on the edge after this week I am depleted and just hoping we manage to end the season well as we can

        Yeah it’s the experience and they knew the right side was our danger side so had 3 LBs v Saka and he is being slated but the YOUNG guy has alot of pressure on his shoulders.

        We are just not there yet, Phase 3 BUT Mikel can’t get these lads over the finish line and is again what gonna go spend alot of money, play good football (so did Brenda’s at Pool) but come up short.

        Yes we are In the UCL next year again but are we just there to be a part or take over? If we arnt aiming to tale over we are in the wrong sport.

        No apologies needed buddy!! Let’s hope we can cheer on a win at Molineux this weekend

  26. Tight over the two legs, but Bayern deserved to go through overall.

    Of course Arteta will get criticism, and rightly so, but man were some of our players poor today.

    Bayern were always the big favourites, it’s just a shame we went out in such timid fashion.

        1. I doubt that many said we would , most had hope that we could. There is a difference.
          A disappointing night which needs some reflection on our current standing and how we progress.
          We’ve also got some major challenges coming up in the PL which the players need to lift themselves for.

      1. Why? The difference is a goal. And if we had been awarded that penalty last week, things might have been different.

        If Arteta had played the midfield of partey, Rice and Odegaard, I believe we cpould have won. But he has vowed to die with Havertz. Shame! A good cach cannot afford to be emotional.

        Also I’m still not convinced that Raya is offering anything better than Ramsdale

  27. Arsenal proved to be not good enough yet. At least 1-0 is not 5-1. Arsenal were as blunt as a bowling ball in the final third. The forward line was anaemic and the build up play too slow. When a Club is bringing Nketiah on as a sub to score goals to get back in the game, it is a problem.

  28. 4.5 years into a project and spending 700mill with nothing to show for because the FA Cup was Emery’s squad that picked itself. If this fake project doesn’t end now, may KSE be hit where it hurts most, at the bottom line.

    Arteta has as his resume being Pep’s cone boy, Doris the tea lady could have assembled with that kind of money a better squad. In addition Arteta is clueless when it comes to in game management, setting up the starting XI and instilling nerves of steel into the players for clutch games. Partey at RB anyone?

    God knows we the Arsenal fans have suffered long enough So, please Lord Almighty free us from this manager in training and return us to the feared Arsenal of old.

  29. A midfield of Partey, Odegaard and Rice can be one of the most effective in the world. In fact, Partey played for a few minutes last week and delivered the pass that led to the Saka-denied penalty. But he sat on the bench today glued to it while 65M Havertz was once again pushed to the 8th position in the dying minutes where he has struggled throughout the season without ever making any impact.

    We have seen Guardiola sign up players and ended up leaving them on the bench when he found that they were ineffective or just average as has been the case with Havertz. But Arteta has emotionally vowed to die with him.

    1. We should have played Partey all through this season, injury or no injury. Even if he is unfit he must play.
      Havertz should go and play in the under-21 team as advised by the geniuses on JA.

  30. The way some Arsenal fans endorse mediocre performance is shocking. Arteta has spent close to a billion with nothing to show for it. Wasted resources on Vieira, Tavares, Havertz etc when we could have got big game players and match winners. For all of you who talk of progress, it doesn’t count if we do not win the league or champions league. I still believe Unai would have done better given Arteta’s “war chest”. We have a weak bench because Arteta uses the same players week in week out and promising players like Smith Rowe have become rusty.

  31. Great game, Arteta picked the right tactics, the players should have maximised it well, but the didn’t,

    I’m happy we weren’t demolished, shows we have improved,

    IMO, we really need to improve our midfield,

    Get a strong substitute for Odegaard and a technical and powerful CDM like Rodri.

    Get a CF, I wish we get Victor Boniface.

  32. Am one of the very few fans on JA that was not disappointed because, I knew it will happen. Though we need a goal scoring machine, but a highly technical, tactical and experienced coach will win PL with the present squad. Unfortunately, Arteta is no where near those qualities. It’s more unfortunate that the Kroenkes will not sack him. We lost the match at Emirates in our first leg. I had asked this question before. Can someone help me. Don’t we have psychogist in the coaching staff? Because our players needs to be psyched up before some matches.
    Secondly, Arteta’s players management is very poor. Lack of rotation killed Saka and some players he dumped on the bench.
    In fact, there’s no point sounding like a broken records. If we are to win any major trophy then, Artetaout. But, if we comfortable with our present yearly stories then, Artetain.
    Arteta can not win a major trophy because of his biases in team selections and his refusal to learn. If you like call me negative,it doesn’t make any difference. Just with time, I and other realist will be vindicated as always.

  33. A win would have been an unexpected bonus as we were lucky to get through against Porto and were up against after the 2-2 draw at home.
    I was full of hope for the future after last season but the changes in personnel haven’t improved the results/point gained. In fact we have been fortunate that our centre backs have kept fit this season- where would be in if we had Holding in the team like the end of last season?
    We now have an ineffective bench as good players apart Trossard having no impact. Ask the question who were you wishing to come on to change the game? -why is this, possibly lack of rotation to get up to match speed or Arteta’s management of squad players etc?
    It’s back to the later Wenger years of qualifying for the Champions league is our trophy

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Top Blog Sponsors