Well that was a bit of a nightmare Gooners, and certainly not what Arsenal were hoping would happen in Germany. For some reason we were nothing like as solid as in the game at the Emirates and that did not go well against a Bayern Munich side that was in red hot and scintillating form.
The first goal was not too long in coming and it was the in form striker Lewandowski who grabbed it in the 10th minute, with Gabriel playing him onside and gifting the Pole way too much room in the box.
When Ozil scored from Monreal’s fired cross two minutes later, completing a great move down the left from Arsenal, it could have changed the game but the German’s complained and the ref disallowed it for a handball, rubbing salt into the wound by booking Ozil even though he had not seen it to decide if it was deliberate, and the speed of the ball in makes that very harsh.
That was about as good as it got for us in the first half, with Muller scoring a second as we failed to stop crosses and generally gave the Bayern players way too much space. When Alaba scored a fantastic long range third just before the break, the game was up and Cech had also made a string of good saves, so it looked like it was going to be a very long second half.
That seemed certain when Robben finished a sweeping move for their fourth, but the Gunners had looked more threatening ourselves and really should have had at least one before Alexis found Giroud in the 69th minute and the French striker took it on his chest and swivelled to power past Neuer.
It was better to watch than the first half and with a bit more luck we could have made things very interesting. Cazorla in particular had at least two gilt edged chances but the way we played against a brilliant team was great to see and should ensure that the scoreline and result do not dent the team’s morale.
Even though we could not get a second while the homt team hit us on the break late on for a fifth, the damage was done long before then and there were at least some positives to take as the Gunners need to get back to business in the Premier League.