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

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?