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Confirmed Arsenal team to face Bayern Munich in Champions League first leg

Arsenal welcome German giants Bayern Munich to the Emirates this evening in the Champions League and this is the team Mikel Arteta has announced.

It’s been quite a while since Arsenal reached this stage of the Champions League. The last time they faced a team in the competition was Bayern Munich, who emerged as 10-2 winners on aggregate.

However, things are different now. Bayern is a far cry from the formidable team of 2017 that dominated Arsenal. Conversely, this current Arsenal squad is significantly improved, promising a very different encounter this time around.

Bayern is enduring a subpar season by their lofty standards, but they should not be underestimated. Spearheading their attack is Harry Kane, a player well-known to Arsenal fans.

Nevertheless, this Arsenal team is exceptional. They are on track to contend for the Premier League title and possess as much potential as any other team in the Champions League.

For Arsenal to succeed, they must secure a solid lead in the first leg to take to Germany. Confidence is high that Arteta’s team will accomplish just that.

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137 Comments

  1. Prefer Partey in midfield to Jorghino but maybe not fit. Im worried for Kiwior at LB, probably prefer Tomi but we will see. I think we need to win anything to nil.

  2. Good team choice by omitting OZ and GJ against a tough BM on the CL stage.
    I will take a narrow win right now.

    1. Agree, I would not have started either OZ or GJ. They can always be subbed in if we need them, but one does not inspire on defense, and the other goals.

  3. Would’ve preferred Partey instead of Jorginho and Tomiyasu instead of Kiwior.
    We need solidity and must allow little margin for error in both midfield and defense.

  4. I prefer it exactly like this

    COYG !

    Any win works
    Just that a narrow win means 2nd Leg will demand a war for us to qualify

  6. Exactly the line up I expected and wanted. Would of loved party in there but can’t risk having rusty legs in there today so definitely the right choice IMHO.

  13. This sort of stupidity ruins Raya’s overall game. What on earth was he thinking standing half way up the pitch.

  14. Jorginho should be intercepting that pass from Gabriel. Shouldn’t have allowed that ball pass him by.
    Exactly what I was talking about with him in the starting lineup.

    1. Makes you wonder if Partey could have intercepted or disrupted that play; Jorghino lacks pace and that defensive instinct Partey has.

      Poor pass to begin with, I think Gabriel was the one who should have cleared it rather than trying the impossible pass

  17. Nerves just got better of them. More quality than Bayern but just not the experience of composure..

        1. We need to settle down and get rid of the nerves, very much capable of turning this match upside down.

  21. Somehow Bayern are physically trying to stop Arsenal, and Madrid doing it to City.

  22. Jorginho getting skinned by the pace of this bayern attack….rice needs to be DM this game.

  23. Jesus christ what is happening here… our 2 rocks have been made to look pebbles at the back!

      1. NY I really hope your right, we havnt looked this disorganised In a long time though. .. Def not over but we have saw this script before unfortunately

  25. Said a million times, Jorginho in high pace games is a huuuuge liability! Only thrives with high possession with minimal pressure.

  28. The Gunners have allowed Segie Gnabry to score against them in the match. This has happened after I have warned the, on this JustArsenal site to not allow him. But spoil his Emirates Stadium return for him. With him not finding any joy but disappointment as he returns to the Ems.
    I hope the Gunners won’t allow Harry Kane or the like of him in the Bayern Munchen team in the match to find any joy in it but sadness.

  29. We are far toostatic withslow passing and player not moving enough.

    Bayern look far more fluid and will beat us IMO. UNLESS we star playing wit pace and fluidity If we dont, then we are out, effectively tonight!

    1. Have to agree, this isn’t the Arsenal team we have watched all 2024 stop every team from scoring and we now gift this lot 2 goals. Frustrating

      1. Two attacks one goal and a pen. Happens in football why we watch but we’ve still got this. Have faith kedar, we are good

        1. Bayern are gonna park the bus and physically abuse Arsenal players. The referee doesn’t look to be showing cards. It’s a bit scary now.

          1. It is scary but we are either about it or we are not. I believe we are I might be wrong, don’t believe I am.

  31. It’s Raya again… Very poor in precision.. Why did he go that far while Gabriel was more than 10 yard far away from Bayern forward?.

  32. Two attacks one goal and a pen. Happens in football why we watch but we’ve still got this. Have faith, we are good.

  33. Experience matters in Champions League as we see

    Kiwior is not handling Sane at-all
    Tomiyasu would do better

    Why are we playing 1-way towards the right wing 95% of the time

  34. We are huffing and puffing but not controlling the game. We are looking more disjointed and more prone to counter attack. Joghino not suited for this type of game.

  35. Why everyone is blaming Jorginho ??
    When it was evident that Kiwior was fooled by Sane pretty at the half way line
    You have to play 2 holding midfielders against better opponents

    1. Exactly, Sane is toying with Kiwior almost everytime

      Kiwior needs to come off for Tomiyasu

      Evens looks like Zinchenko can help us make that left side work
      The leftside has been practically dead the whole half

  36. Started very well for ten minutes and then got too comfortable. Ultimately leading to mistakes. Shows the lack of experience against a team who are very mature in CL. Our reliable rocks have been shaken again. Can we turn this round? That will require calm nerves and level heads. Our inexperience may be Our downfall again.

  37. Arteta and his players were too nervous for such a big event. They were too rushed and we would likely get eliminated if we keep playing with a bag of nerve like that

    Bayern scored their first goal because Kiwior didn’t expect Magalhaes to pass to him and their second goal happened because of Saliba’s small mistake

    I think we can only catch Bayern up from set-pieces

    1. I put that second goal on Kiwior he let Sane beat him too easily to initiate that counter attack

      The attack was already a goal-threat to that made Saliba try to prevent a goal – so putting the mistake on the person that made an attempt to stop a goal is not really right

      Who made the whole move become a goal threat, it was Kiwior

      He has no answers for all Sane has been throwing at him

      Sane is beating him anyhow and anyway and anywhere

  39. Two uncharacteristic errors made by our reliable CBs playing like amateurs is making us look awed by the occasion. We seem to be playing with nerves. Unfortunately, this is the Champions League QF where silly mistakes get punished due to the better quality of the opposition. The only succor is that the controversial and useless away goal rule has been abolished. So, the highest scoring side goes through.

    1. The first goal is on Raya

      He caused all those hurried passing that was absolutely not necessary if he’d not come out that much so wrongly

      1. Even the commentator was asking what Raya was doing there. He caught everyone comoley off guard.

  40. Why is Odegaard always next to Saka leaving a huge gap between Havertz and Rice. Goretzka has dominated us big time

  41. I fear we are gonna concede more goals on counter attack because now we will have to play on front foot which will create space in the backline and midfield area
    And Bayern has pacy wingers and AM
    And of course prolific goal scorer
    So I think we are gonna concede at least another goal on counter attack
    Not sure we will score or not

  42. We overhyped ourselves against Porto

    Now we’re seeing again that Local League form is different from Champions League

    Let’s drop all those talk of Bayern being poor

    What we’ve just watched is a quality team that most likely will knock us out having the advantage of playing the 2nd Leg in their own home

    1. True. Also, If we do lose, the biggest issue may be how it effects our league form. I would hate to see this derail our season.

  43. Yes we have been awful but where has all this negativity come from. A huge 45mins to put this right and z couple of early changes would be good

  44. It might be half time in this game but it’s not even half time in the tie yet so many people giving up. Have a little faith .

    1. May be people are angry because we are again getting battered by Bayern side even though we are in much better position this season than them

  45. 4-2 wishful thinking maybe or not I believe they have it them and they earnt that previous. Let’s go!!!

  46. Kiowor is completely outplayed by Sane and Martinelli is not being feeded the ball he needs. Its like we are playing with ome wing of Saka

  50. And there is the risk with Zink always dropping into midfield… Sane now has more room to play in!! He needed to be marked out of the game by Tomi.

    If martinelli was struggling the get Trossard on aswell as Partey to win that battle in the middle

  52. I might be wrong but Man City vs RM is pretty much how Arsenal vs Bayern match is going on. Both English teams dominating possesion and getting caught in counters and kinda getting physically bullied.

    1. May be but we are more terrible because we are playing at home and City area playing at away
      That’s makes us terrible

  53. Lets be honest WE ARE PANTS! Being outplayed and whateve happens tonight, we are NOT , PLAINLY NOT, going to win the CL.

    We arebetter off going out and concentrating on the more important PREM without pointless CL distractions.

    1. I personally think out of CL is not unacceptable. We are still recovering from a long spell of weakness, I am just happy to see us playing well in EPL. CL is not a target for us at this moment.

  55. Personally I think if we go for it we are a top side
    If we shore up we are a top side but when we do neither we are average

  56. In all fairness, BM are defending very well. It’s just a shame we made two big mistakes..

  58. Efff uuu effuu euuuuuuuuu Bayern.

    Goooooooo

    Effuuuuu

    Mofofoooo Bayern
    Thugss

    Effuuuuuu

    Goooo trossard

    Efffuuuuufuufufufuu

  62. Thugs Bayern haven’t played proper football the whole game. Effffff Bayern POS

  69. Now we don’t lose it, we have a 2nd leg next Wednesday and now we know what we’re up against.

    2 mistakes cost us and tbh I thought was gonna be a disaster but we have hung in there. If we can nik this at the end so be it just don’t lose as a draw will do.

    No away goals so all to play for

      1. Why not, Davies is suspended and Sane/Gnabry both can’t finish 90mins.

        We started wrong players in Jorginho and Kiwior, possibly Martinelli also as he is just back from injury.

        Away next week Party & Rice in front of the two CBs, Zink or Tomi on that left side. Trossard & Jesus with Gab & Kia on bench. We cab beat this team if we cut out the mistakes which I belive were down to nerves

    1. Ref bottled it imo but no real surprise as was way out of his depth. Straight red for Kane as well but good result as we weren’t very good.
      Zink and Party were awful

      1. Zinchenko was not awful

        He brought a little life to the left side

        Arteta was spot-on with his substitutions

  73. What’s the point of taking the keeper on and then try and buy a penalty when its easier to just shoot?

    2. Really didn’t make any sense at-all

      You’ve cut the keeper just find a way to roll it towards the net even if it’s slow and a defender can stop it

      Why try buy a penalty

      Nonetheless Neuer was marvelous in the situation – that was super experience – no VAR can rule it to be a penalty

      1. Yes my thoughts too about Neur in that situation. Both feet firmly on the ground. Now did Saka trip or did he kick Neuer leg?

        Difficulty to know from a single replay.

          1. my bad it displayed below my comment and wasn’t so sorry hh. The fact your questioning the stonewall pen though says alot

  74. They only scored one goal from open play. We tweet our line up and the next match is ours. Jus sayin…

  75. Just stop it

    They looked like the better team going forward

    We can say we’re lucky that last ball of theirs hit the pole

    Bayern is better than us I’m the Champions League

    1. I don’t think they are better – we looked better for the first twenty minutes, and then started making a lot of uncharacteristic mistakes. I always notice when we play a lot of games, our passing accuracy and pressing suffers. It would hurt losing to a team running on spud juice.

  76. Lots of unthinking optimism by Gooners! But I thought we wer outplayed by a better, quicker moving, more fluid and more incisive pace in passing side. I have written off our chances of winning the CL now and think it best we go out in the return, which I SEE AS LIKELY, so we can concentrate on the far more important Prem.

    Our chances to win the Prem therefore, increased tonight. And THAT to me, is the bottom line and what matters.

    1. Play with discipline next week, show our defensive side we have all season and hit them on the counter, Davies is banned too so Saka may have an opportunity next week to get in behind.

      Partey & Rice at the base and see what happens. Can’t write us off just yet but I do see your point in making life easier to win the Premier league & next round is Madrid or City.

      Let’s have a go at it as everyone thinks Bayern is through already

    2. Did you see the Sane pen vs the Saka pen? We’ll beat Bayern away if the refs get rained in which is not a guarantee.

    3. I would say the odds are now 45-55. We are still very much in it. If we are to go out, I think it’s better in the semis. It will make it a very successful CL return.

  77. If Liverpool got a penalty, against Man Utd, then that was defo a penalty. Looked like Saka was teeing up a shot on an open goal, it made no sense for him to go down. I don’t think we played well though, passing was sloppy, we weren’t getting second balls, and we were lucky with that one that hit the post.

  78. Good game. Nerves at play. Go a little easy on our boys guys. It’s their first such match of such magnitude. I’m there will be a lot of soul searching and learning for our boys.. If they have shown anything so far this season, is that they are LEARNING! I

    1. indeed but the saka penalty hurts it’s so blatant. Nothing to do with Arsenal just the we hate the English and are jealous of the prem mentality that has infiltrated European competitions since forever.

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