5 takeaways for Arsenal from the Champions League loss against Bayern Munich

Özil bashing

Mesut Ozil

I am not one to blindly defend a player, if their performances have been lacklustre and they’ve been stealing a place in the team ahead of those more deserving, i.e. Rosicky, then I will express this. However, some fans and the media (Neil Ashton) seem to have very short memories.

On Saturday, Özil was inspirational and given man of the match! And now the reports are coming out that last night he may have been carrying this hamstring injury for a good 25 minutes. So why not lay off his back a bit and actually appreciate that it may not have been his best performance but neither was it Cazorla’s or Arteta’s – and at least they were fully fit for more than half the time they were on the pitch!

Negativity

Philipp Lahm challenges Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

It astonishes me how some Arsenal fans can have such blind expectations. You may or may not agree with this, but I probably would’ve taken 1-1 on the night. Were people seriously expecting us, with players like Ox and Giroud running on empty, to win 3-1 at the Allianz? Against the best team in the world? A team who have averaged over four goals a game this calendar year?

It is always disappointing to exit the Champions league but at least we were there in the first place and at least we can go out with our heads held high and losing to the more than likely eventual winners. Now we have a great opportunity to focus on the league and cement the FA Cup. So why is everyone so downbeat?

Szczesny is our number one

Lukasz Fabianski

There were a few last night who managed to surpass all by reactively stating that Fabianski should start against Sp*rs. Don’t get me wrong, Fabianski has been impressive, assured and much improved when called upon this season but Wojcech is 23 years old and already developing into a world class goalkeeper. He is one off Petr Cech in the race for the golden glove (if that still exists anymore)and IMO has been absolutely superb this season.

A few might disagreebut I see Szczesny as fast developing into someone who could guard the goal for the next ten years minimum. Besides, it was hardly Szczesny’s fault against Bayern in the first league anyway. So please, praise Fabianski by all means, but remember that three or four solid performances do not override a year and a bit of consistent solidity.

The blame game

Arjen Robben

Robben is a diving cheat and the red card for Szczesny at the Emirates was harsh but what’s done is done and there’s really not much use talking counterfactually about what could have happened and blaming the referees for the manner of our exit. I feel like especially in the second leg we weren’t exactly hard done, sure the referee was a bit inconsistent and perhaps could’ve booked a couple more of their players but in reality it didn’t amount to a difference of two goals, what was needed to win the tie.

Lack of perspective

Olivier Giroud

This ties in with the negativity qualm, but deserves a point of its own. People have a habit of completely disregarding everything else that is going on at the club in an event like this. For one thing, Arsenal were not at full strength. With Ramsey, Gibbs, Wilshere and Walcott it could’ve been a very different game so talking about the huge gulf in class is perhaps obscured by the fact that they were at full strength whilst we were depleted and of those playing, many were tired. Furthermore, we do have a realistic chance of two other trophies and the FA Cup presents the best chance since 2005 for us to go and win a real competition.

Arsenal may have gone out of the Champions League, but we did so having played with 10 men for a quarter of the tie, and then subsequently having to chase a two goal lead for the remaining half of it. And all this against the best team in the world and current European champions. Rather than turning on individual players, referees, the medical staff et al maybe we should just treat this as a blessing.

Going out at this stage ensures that we leave the competition respectably having progressed from the group stage and avoided the dreaded Europa League whilst doing ourselves proud for the second year running at the Allianz Arena. Now we can focus solely on the FA Cup and maybe even a late surge towards the title and if not that then certainly a respectable 2nd or 3rd place finish. The last time we went out of the Champions League coincided with the start of one of the best runs of form in recent history, how do we know it won’t happen again?